Material Gradients in Stretchable Substrates toward Integrated Electronic Functionality.

Abstract

The approach toward a stretchable electronic substrate employs multiple soft polymer layers patterned around silicon chips, which act as surrogates for conventional electronics chips, to create a controllable stiffness gradient. Adding just one intermediate polymer layer results in a six-fold increase in the strain failure threshold enabling the substrate to be stretched to over twice its length before delamination occurs.