A universal packaging substrate for mechanically stable assembly of stretchable electronics

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 6106 - 11
• Main Authors: Shao, Yan, Yan, Jianfeng, Zhi, Yinglin, Li, Chun, Li, Qingxian, Wang, Kaimin, Xia, Rui, Xiang, Xinyue, Liu, Liqian, Chen, Guoli, Zhang, Hanxue, Cai, Daohang, Wang, Haochuan, Cheng, Xing, Yang, Canhui, Ren, Fuzeng, Yu, Yanhao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.07.2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 147/135; 147/3; 639/166/985; 639/166/988; 639/301/1005/1007; Adhesion; Assembly; Bioelectricity; Carbon; Chemical bonds; Deformation; Delamination; Elastic deformation; Electric generators; Electronic packaging; Electronics; Generators; Humanities and Social Sciences; Interfaces; Materials science; Modules; multidisciplinary; Packaging; Permeability; Polyethylene terephthalate; Polymers; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Service life assessment; Silicones; Strain; Stress concentration; Stretchability; Substrates; Surface chemistry
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50494-8

Stretchable electronics commonly assemble multiple material modules with varied bulk moduli and surface chemistry on one packaging substrate. Preventing the strain-induced delamination between the module and the substrate has been a critical challenge. Here we develop a packaging substrate that delivers mechanically stable module/substrate interfaces for a broad range of stiff and stretchable modules with varied surface chemistries. The key design of the substrate was to introduce module-specific stretchability and universal adhesiveness by regionally tuning the bulk molecular mobility and surface molecular polarity of a near-hermetic elastic polymer matrix. The packaging substrate can customize the deformation of different modules while avoiding delamination upon stretching up to 600%. Based on this substrate, we fabricated a fully stretchable bioelectronic device that can serve as a respiration sensor or an electric generator with an in vivo lifetime of 10 weeks. This substrate could be a versatile platform for device assembly. Preventing the strain-induced delamination between the module and the substrate has been a critical challenge. The authors developed a stretchable packaging substrate that enables stable module/substrate interfaces under large deformation, preventing the interfacial delamination of stretchable electronics.