Complementary metal oxide silicon integrated circuits incorporating monolithically integrated stretchable wavy interconnects

Abstract

Stretchable complementary metal oxide silicon circuits consisting of ultrathin active devices mechanically and electrically connected by narrow metal lines and polymer bridging structures are presented. This layout—together with designs that locate the neutral mechanical plane near the critical circuit layers—yields strain independent electrical performance and realistic paths to circuit integration. A typical implementation reduces the strain in the silicon to less than ∼0.04% for applied strains of ∼10%. Mechanical and electrical modeling and experimental characterization reveal the underlying physics of these systems.

Stretchable, Curvilinear Electronics Based on Inorganic Materials

“…As an example, the variation in threshold voltage of an inverter decreases by more than five times, to $0.1 V during stretching, as shown in the Figure 10e and 10f. [77] …”

“…Figure 10 provides an example, and an illustration of the associated fabrication steps. [77] Here, regions of the ultrathin PI substrate away from the devices and interconnects are removed by reactive ion etching, before transfer to PDMS (Fig. 10a).…”

A curvy, stretchy future for electronics

“…One approach to such technology relies on the development of new electronic materials, e.g., organic semiconductors that can flex (4) and composite elastomer conductors that can stretch (7). Different strategies use optimized structural configurations (8) of established inorganic materials for stretchable interconnects (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) and/or active devices (8,(14)(15)(16). The concepts that enable stretchy properties from these brittle materials are simple.…”

“…work involves characterizing the microscopic behavior of the material structures, the devices, circuits, and systems, where the length scales for the relevant deformations range from millimeters to nanometers (8,10,12,(14)(15)(16). Fig.…”

Three-dimensionally deformable, highly stretchable, permeable, durable and washable fabric circuit boards

“…FCBs mechanically support and electrically connect discrete electronic components by using conductive tracks or others made from electrically conductive fibrous materials of metal, conductive polymers or composites, prints or coatings, supported by dielectric fibrous structures [10,11]. FCB technologies, instead of cumbersome cables which inevitably restrict certain movements [12][13][14][15][16][17], enable the whole FCB assembly to be worn on three-dimensional human bodies in real daily activities [18], thereby opening up a large number of potential applications such as electronic skins [19,20], conformable sensor networks (or arrays) on human bodies [10,[21][22][23][24] and biointegrated systems for health monitoring or therapeutic purposes [16,[25][26][27][28][29].…”