Influence of the geometry of defects in textronic structures on their electrical properties

Abstract

Continuity of the conductive path is a prerequisite for the phenomenon of electric current to exist in the structures of wearable electronics. The value of the current depends not only on the material properties of the structure but also on the geometrical dimensions of the defect of a thin electrically conductive layer. The article describes the analysis of the influence of the width and slope of the linear defect of a thin metallic layer on the value of the current. The conducted simulations show that when the width of the defect is smaller than 40% of the distance of the defect from the edge of the path, the current intensity depends on the ratio of the width to the length of the defect to a very small extent. The value of the current also depends on the slope of the defect to the path axis. In the case of a larger number of defects, their influence on the effective track resistance depends not only on their size but also on their location and distance from each other. The resistance of the entire electrically conductive layer is also influenced by the location of defects in relation to its edges.

Influence of Structural Defects on the Resistivity and Current Flow Field in Conductive Thin Layers

“…As it results from the precise analytical solution described in [12,13] for a single defect with the shape of a rectilinear segment, the current density at its ends assumes infinite values (despite the continuity of the potential). It was shown in [32] that this effect can introduce a significant error in the calculation of the total current flowing in the conducting stripe (Figure 2) only when the length of the defect is close to the width of the stripe and when at least one of its ends is at a distance comparable to the width of the defect. In this paper, the impact of defects with lengths much smaller than the stripe sizes is analyzed, and it was concluded that modeling them as infinitely thin does not significantly affect the simulation results.…”