Stretchable and Foldable Electronic Devices

• US 20150237711A1
• Filed: 05/07/2015
• Published: 08/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2008
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois, Northwestern University
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of The University of Illinois, Northwestern University
• Inventors: ROGERS, John A., HUANG, Yonggang, KO, Heung Cho, STOYKOVICH, Mark, CHOI, Won Mook, SONG, Jizhou, AHN, Jong Hyun, KIM, Dae Hyeong
• Granted Patent: US 10,292,261 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 80/00 Products made by additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/4867 Applying pastes or inks, e.g. screen printing H01L21/486 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/6835 using temporarily an auxiliary support
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2221/68359 used as a support during manufacture of interconnect decals or build up layers
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/05624 Aluminium [Al] as principal constituent
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/4985 Flexible insulating substrates H01L23/49572 and H01L23/49855 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 25/0655 the devices being arranged next to each other
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 25/50 Multistep manufacturing processes of assemblies consisting of devices, each device being of a type provided for in group H01L27/00 or H01L29/00 H01L21/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/14601 Structural or functional details thereof
• 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 2924/01019 Potassium [K]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01046 Palladium [Pd]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01057 Lanthanum [La]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01079 Gold [Au]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/09701 Low temperature co-fired ceramic [LTCC]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/12044 OLED
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/13091 Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor [MOSFET]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/1461 MEMS
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/3025 Electromagnetic shielding
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/028 Bending or folding regions of flexible printed circuits H05K1/0283 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/0283 : Stretchable printed circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/03 : Use of materials for the substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/036 : Multilayers with layers of different types
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/0393 : Flexible materials H05K1/038 takes precedence; specific organic compositions are classified in H05K1/0313 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/111 : Pads for surface mounting, e.g. lay-out
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/118 : specially for flexible printed circuits, e.g. using folded portions
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/16 : incorporating printed electric components, e.g. printed resistor, capacitor, inductor
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/185 : Components encapsulated in the insulating substrate of the printed circuit or incorporated in internal layers of a multilayer circuit semiconductor chips encapsulated by interconnect and support structures H01L23/5389, H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/0133 : Elastomeric or compliant polymer elastomeric conductor H05K2201/0314
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2203/0271 : Mechanical force other than pressure, e.g. shearing or pulling
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/207 : using a prefabricated paste pattern, ink pattern or powder pattern
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/284 : for encapsulating mounted components H05K1/185 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/30 : Assembling printed circuits with electric components, e.g. with resistor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49002 : Electrical device making
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/4913 : Assembling to base an electrical component, e.g., capacitor, etc.
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49146 : with encapsulating, e.g., potting, etc.

Abstract

Disclosed herein are stretchable, foldable and optionally printable, processes for making devices and devices such as semiconductors, electronic circuits and components thereof that are capable of providing good performance when stretched, compressed, flexed or otherwise deformed. Strain isolation layers provide good strain isolation to functional device layers. Multilayer devices are constructed to position a neutral mechanical surface coincident or proximate to a functional layer having a material that is susceptible to strain-induced failure. Neutral mechanical surfaces are positioned by one or more layers having a property that is spatially inhomogeneous, such as by patterning any of the layers of the multilayer device.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a substrate;

a plurality of device islands supported by said substrate; and

a serpentine electrical interconnect having a first end electrically connected to a first device island and a second end electrically connected to a second device island.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein adjacent device islands are electrically interconnected by one or more serpentine interconnects.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect is non-coplanar relative to a substrate surface of the substrate.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect is coplanar relative to a substrate surface of the substrate.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein said coplanar serpentine electrical interconnect is bonded to said substrate and maintains a coplanar alignment with said substrate surface under an applied force.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, comprising a second serpentine electrical interconnect that electrically connects said first device island and said second device island.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect has at least three distinct curved portions between said first end and said second end.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 having a distinct curved portion that is opposibly positioned relative to at least one other distinct curved portion.

9. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein at least one distinct curved portion is in physical contact with at least one other distinct curved portion in a relaxed state electronic device.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect has an in-plane amplitude and a wavelength, wherein said in-plane amplitude is greater than said wavelength.

11. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect accommodates an applied strain by a change in a separation distance from said substrate, a change in a shape of said serpentine electrical interconnect, or both.

12. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein for an applied strain of up to 70%, a peak strain in said serpentine electrical interconnect is less than or equal to 0.2%.

13. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein a peak strain in said serpentine electrical interconnect is at least 200 times less than an applied strain to the electronic device.

14. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein upon electronic device stretching, compressing or bending at least a portion of said serpentine electrical interconnect adopts a non-coplanar geometry.

15. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein said non-coplanar geometry corresponds to at least partial lift-off from said substrate or a deformation of said serpentine electrical interconnect.

16. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect accommodates an electronic device bending radius of up to 5 mm without impacting electronic device performance.

17. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect is coiled or twisted.

18. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect is not bonded to said substrate and said serpentine electrical interconnect accommodates an applied force by movement of a portion of said serpentine electrical interconnect relative to said substrate.

19. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said electronic device has an electrical property that is stable over at least 1000 cycles of stretching.

20. The electronic device of claim 1, comprising a second serpentine electrical interconnect electrically connected to said first device island, wherein said second serpentine interconnect extends in a different lateral direction relative to said serpentine interconnect to electrically connect said first device island to a third device island that is not aligned with said first and second device islands.

21. The electronic device of claim 20, comprising an array of device islands, wherein device islands of said array are electrically connected to a plurality of adjacent device islands by said serpentine electrical interconnects.

22. The electronic device of claim 1, comprising an array of device islands, wherein adjacent device islands are electrically interconnected by one or more of said serpentine electrical interconnects.

23. The electronic device of claim 22 that accommodates a device stretching strain of up to 70% with a peak strain in the serpentine interconnect that is less than or equal to 0.2%.

24. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising an encapsulation layer positioned over said serpentine electrical interconnect and said substrate to embed said serpentine electrical interconnect.

25. The electronic device of claim 24, wherein said encapsulation layer comprises a liquid covered by a solid polymer layer.

26. The electronic device of claim 25, wherein said liquid comprises a liquid polymer.

27. The electronic device of claim 26, wherein said liquid polymer comprises pre-polymerized PDMS and said solid polymer layer comprises PDMS.

28. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said device islands are bonded to said substrate.

29. The electronic device of claim 28, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect region between said first and second ends is not bonded to said substrate.

30. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said serpentine electrical interconnect comprises a bent region that is not in physical contact with said substrate.

31. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of said serpentine electrical interconnect is bonded to said substrate.

32. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said first end is bonded to said first device island and said second end is bonded to said second device island.

33. An electronic device comprising:

an array of device islands;

an array of serpentine electrical interconnects, each serpentine electrical interconnect having a first end electrically connected to a device island and a second end electrically connected to a different device island that is adjacent to said device island; and

wherein said array of serpentine electrical interconnects form two alignment directions that are orthogonal to each other.