Stretchable strain-tolerant soft printed circuit board: a systematic approach for the design rules of stretchable interconnects

Abstract

Reported herein is a stretchable strain-tolerant soft printed circuit board (SPCB) following optimized circuit design rules. Inkjet-printed interconnects with a wrinkled structure and rigid epoxy patterns allow the outstanding stretchability and strain distribution controllability of the SPCB, respectively. The prototype circuits show reliable operation under various mechanical deformations, even in the 180° folding state and the irregular deformed state with 25% tensile strain. This research paves a promising route for the realization of highly reliable soft printed circuits with a high degree of design freedom, which can thus be used for driver chip mounting or driver board interconnection for the stretchable display applications.

Keywords

• electronic skin
• soft printed circuit board
• stretchable
• inkjet printing
• strain distribution