Flexible Hybrid Electronics: Direct Interfacing of Soft and Hard Electronics for Wearable Health Monitoring

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 26; no. 47; pp. 8764 - 8775
• Main Authors: Khan, Yasser, Garg, Mohit, Gui, Qiong, Schadt, Mark, Gaikwad, Abhinav, Han, Donggeon, Yamamoto, Natasha A. D., Hart, Paul, Welte, Robert, Wilson, William, Czarnecki, Steve, Poliks, Mark, Jin, Zhanpeng, Ghose, Kanad, Egitto, Frank, Turner, James, Arias, Ana C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 20.12.2016
• Subjects: Circuit boards; Devices; Echocardiography; Electrodes; Electronics; flexible electronics; inkjet printing; printed electrocardiography electrodes; printed thermistors; Sensors; Thermistors; Wearable; wearable sensor patches
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201603763

The interfacing of soft and hard electronics is a key challenge for flexible hybrid electronics. Currently, a multisubstrate approach is employed, where soft and hard devices are fabricated or assembled on separate substrates, and bonded or interfaced using connectors; this hinders the flexibility of the device and is prone to interconnect issues. Here, a single substrate interfacing approach is reported, where soft devices, i.e., sensors, are directly printed on Kapton polyimide substrates that are widely used for fabricating flexible printed circuit boards (FPCBs). Utilizing a process flow compatible with the FPCB assembly process, a wearable sensor patch is fabricated composed of inkjet‐printed gold electrocardiography (ECG) electrodes and a stencil‐printed nickel oxide thermistor. The ECG electrodes provide 1 mVp–p ECG signal at 4.7 cm electrode spacing and the thermistor is highly sensitive at normal body temperatures, and demonstrates temperature coefficient, α ≈ –5.84% K–1 and material constant, β ≈ 4330 K. This sensor platform can be extended to a more sophisticated multisensor platform where sensors fabricated using solution processable functional inks can be interfaced to hard electronics for health and performance monitoring, as well as internet of things applications. A wearable sensor patch is fabricated by directly interfacing inkjet‐printed gold electrocardiography electrodes and a stencil‐printed nickel oxide thermistor to silicon integrated circuits. This direct printing technique, which is fully compatible with flexible printed circuit board assembly process, is promising for health and performance monitoring, as well as internet of things applications.