Controlled Buckling Structures in Semiconductor Interconnects and Nanomembranes for Stretchable Electronics

• US 20120327608A1
• Filed: 04/06/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois
• Inventors: ROGERS, John A., Meitl, Matthew, Sun, Yugang, Carlson, Andrew, Stoykovich, Mark, Huang, Yonggang, Nuzzo, Ralph G., Zhu, Zhengtao, Menard, Etienne, Khang, Dahl-Young, Ko, Heung Cho, Choi, Won Mook, Jiang, Hanging
• Granted Patent: US 8,729,524 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 361/728
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02422 Non-crystalline insulating materials, e.g. glass, polymers
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02628 using solutions
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/4846 Leads on or in insulating or insulated substrates, e.g. metallisation H01L21/4821 takes precedence; metallisation of ceramics in general C04B41/51; printed circuits H05K3/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/8258 the substrate being a semiconductor, using a combination of technologies covered by H01L21/8206, H01L21/8213 , H01L21/822, H01L21/8252, H01L21/8254 or H01L21/8256
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/5387 Flexible insulating substrates H01L23/5388 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/12 the substrate being other than a semiconductor body, e.g. an insulating body
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/0657 characterised by the shape of the body
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 29/72 Transistor-type devices, i.e. able to continuously respond to applied control signals
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/12041 LED
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/13091 Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor [MOSFET]
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/0283 Stretchable printed circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/0133 Elastomeric or compliant polymer
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/09045 Locally raised area or protrusion of insulating substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2203/0271 Mechanical force other than pressure, e.g. shearing or pulling
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/20 by affixing prefabricated conductor pattern H05K1/187, H05K3/046, H05K3/4658, H05K3/4682 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/22 Secondary treatment of printed circuits H05K3/1283 takes precedence; embedding circuits in grooves by pressure H05K3/107
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/4913 Assembling to base an electrical component, e.g., capacitor, etc.

Abstract

In an aspect, the present invention provides stretchable, and optionally printable, components such as semiconductors and electronic circuits capable of providing good performance when stretched, compressed, flexed or otherwise deformed, and related methods of making or tuning such stretchable components. Stretchable semiconductors and electronic circuits preferred for some applications are flexible, in addition to being stretchable, and thus are capable of significant elongation, flexing, bending or other deformation along one or more axes. Further, stretchable semiconductors and electronic circuits of the present invention are adapted to a wide range of device configurations to provide fully flexible electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A two-dimensional device array comprising:

a flexible substrate having a supporting surface;

at least one device component supported on the supporting surface; and

at least two stretchable interconnects, each of the at least two stretchable interconnects having a first end, a second end, and a central portion that is between the first end and the second end,

wherein the at least one device component and the at least two stretchable interconnects are oriented in at least two different directions to form the two-dimensional array,

wherein the first end of each of the at least two stretchable interconnects is in electrical communication with the at least one device component,

wherein the central portion of each of the at least two stretchable interconnects comprises at least two bent configuration regions, and

wherein each bent configuration region is not in physical contact with the supporting surface of the flexible substrate.

3. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein each bent configuration region is curved.

4. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein the central region of each of the at least two stretchable interconnects comprises at least one contact region that is in physical contact with the supporting surface of the substrate, and wherein the at least one contact region is located between the at least two bent configuration regions.

5. The two-dimensional device array of claim 4, wherein the at least one contact region is bonded to the supporting surface of the substrate.

6. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein the at least one device component comprises one or more materials selected from the group consisting of:

a metal, a semiconductor, an insulator, a piezoelectric material, a ferroelectric material, a magnetostrictive material, an electrostrictive material, a superconductor, a ferromagnetic material, and a thermoelectric material.

7. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein the at least one device component is an electronic device, an optical device, an opto-electronic device, a mechanical device, a microelectromechanical device, a nanoelectromechanical device, a microfluidic device and a thermal device.

8. The two-dimensional device array of claim 7, wherein the at least two stretchable interconnects are tunable device components each having at least one electronic property, optical property or mechanical property that changes selectively with a level of strain of the central portion provided by the at least two bent configuration regions.

9. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein the at least one of the at least two stretchable interconnects is a plurality of stretchable interconnects, and wherein the plurality of stretchable interconnects has a bridge configuration that comprises a central region that is in physical contact with the supporting surface and three or more of the plurality of stretchable interconnects extending from the central region.

10. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein each of the at least two stretchable interconnects further comprises one or more contact pads in electrical contact with the first end, the second end or both the first end and the second end.

11. The two-dimensional device array of claim 10, wherein the at least one device component is in electrical contact with the one or more contact pads.

12. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein each of the at least two stretchable interconnects has a coiled conformation, a wrinkled conformation, a buckled conformation and/or a wavy configuration.

13. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein each of the at least two bent configuration regions comprises a folded region, a convex region, a concave region, or any combination thereof.

14. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein the flexible substrate comprises an elastomeric material.

15. The two-dimensional device array of claim 2, wherein the at least one device component is a plurality of device components, and wherein the at least two stretchable interconnects is a plurality of stretchable interconnects.

16. The two-dimensional device array of claim 15, wherein the device array has a grid configuration, floral configuration, bridge configuration, or any combination thereof.

17. The two-dimensional device array of claim 15, wherein one or more of the plurality of device components is connected to adjacent device components by the plurality of stretchable interconnects.

18. The two-dimensional device array of claim 17 wherein at least one of the plurality of stretchable interconnects is oriented in a direction that is different from another of the plurality of stretchable interconnects.

19. The two-dimensional device array of claim 15, wherein at least a portion of the device array comprises two or more of the plurality of stretchable interconnects aligned in a direction parallel to each other or two or more of the plurality of stretchable interconnects oriented in two or more different directions.

20. The two-dimensional device array of claim 15, wherein the device array comprises two or more device layers, and wherein each device layer comprises a plurality of the device components and a plurality of the stretchable interconnects.

21. The two-dimensional device array of claim 15, wherein at least a portion of the supporting surface of the flexible substrate is curved, concave, convex or hemispherical.

22. The two-dimensional device array of claim 15, wherein the device array comprises one or more of a photodetector, a photodiode array, a display, a light-emitting device, a photovoltaic device, a sensor array, a sheet scanner, a LED display, a semiconductor laser array, an optical imaging system, a large-area electronic device, a transistor array, a logic gate array, a microprocessor, an integrated circuit, or any combination of thereof.