Hybrid Systems-in-Foil—Combining the Merits of Thin Chips and of Large-Area Electronics

Abstract

This paper reports on the status of a comprehensive ten-year research and development effort toward hybrid system-in-foil (HySiF). In HySiF, the merits of high-performance integrated circuits on ultra-thin chips and of large-area and discrete electronic component implementation are combined in a complementary fashion in and on a flexible carrier substrate. HySiF paves the way to entirely new applications of electronic products where form factor, form adaptivity and form flexibility are key enablers. In this review paper the various aspects of thin-chip fabrication and embedding, device and circuit design under impact of unknown or variable mechanical stress, and the on-and off-chip implementation of sensor, actuator, microwave, and energy supply components are addressed. INDEX TERMS Hybrid integrated circuits, thin film circuits, flexible electronics, micro assembly, multichip modules, chip scale packaging.

A Review on Materials and Technologies for Organic Large‐Area Electronics

“…[28,30,31] Thus, the purpose of large-area electronics is to create electronic devices that can be spread across a large substrate, where the dense and highly integrated IC devices can be monolithically integrated and assembled on that substrate, in a hybrid approach. [32] Other definitions that relate to the above-mentioned ones include flexible, conformable, and stretchable electronics. Flexible electronics (FE) relates to the act of assembling electronic circuits over flexible substrates.…”

“…[ 28,30,31 ] Thus, the purpose of large‐area electronics is to create electronic devices that can be spread across a large substrate, where the dense and highly integrated IC devices can be monolithically integrated and assembled on that substrate, in a hybrid approach. [ 32 ]…”

Scalable Batch Transfer of Individual Silicon Dice for Ultra-Flexible Polyimide-Based Bioelectronic Devices

“…In some cases distribution of dice on the foil is desired as on the fabrication wafer [14]. However, if distribution of these dice on a flexible target substrate differs from the initial distribution on the fabrication wafer, single dice have to be moved individually to the desired position [15][16][17][18]. This can be rather complex when several dice with dimensions of a few hundred micrometres have to be transferred, aligned and embedded into a flexible substrate.…”

Inkjet-Printed Electronics on Paper for RF Identification (RFID) and Sensing

“…The advantages of paper for electronics can be further enhanced in light of the large-area printed electronics fabrication process [16][17][18][19][20][21]. For example, an additive process such as inkjet printing technology does not produce any by-products, for example, strong acids (wet etching) or chips (milling machines) [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”