• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.19-28
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• 2016

This paper presents an overview of selected advanced measurement technologies for the mechanical properties of polymers used for flexible and stretchable electronic packaging. Over the years, a variety of flexible and stretchable electronics have been developed due to their potential applications for next generation IT industry. To achieve more flexible and wearable devices for practical applications, the usage of polymeric components has been increased significantly. Therefore, accurate measurement of mechanical properties of the polymers is necessary in order to design mechanically reliable devices. However, the measurement has been challenging due to the soft nature and thin applications of polymers. Here, we describe novel measurement technologies of mechanical properties of polymers for flexible and stretchable electronics.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.149-156
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• 2017

Recently, stretchable and transparent electrodes have received great attention owing to their potential for realizing wearable electronics. Unlike the traditional transparent electrodes represented by indium tin oxide (ITO), stretchable and transparent electrodes are able to maintain their electrical and mechanical properties even under stretching stress. Lots of research efforts have been dedicated to the development of stretchable and transparent electrodes since they represent the most important engineering platform for the production of wearable electronics. Various approaches using silver nanowires, nanostructured networks, conductive polymers, and carbon-based electrodes have been explored by many world leading research groups. In this review, present and recent advances in the fabrication methods of stretchable and transparent electrodes are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.351.1-351.1
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• 2016

While conventional electronic devices have been fabricated on the rigid and brittle Si based wafer as a semiconducting substrate, future devices are increasingly finding applications where flexibility and stretchability are further integrated to enable emerging and wearable devices. To achieve high flexibility and stretchability, various approaches are investigated such as polymer based conducting composite, thin metal films on the polymer substrate, and structural modifications for stretchable electronics. In spite of many efforts, it is still a challenge to identify a solution that offers both high stretchability and superior electrical properties. In this paper, we introduce a highly stretchable entangled-mesh graphene showing a potential to address such requirements as stretchability and good electrical performance. Entangle-mesh graphene was synthesized by CVD graphene on the Cu foil. To analyze the mechanical properties of entangled-mesh graphene, endurance and stretching tester have been used.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.64-71
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• 2018

Currently, functional patterns are formed by screen printing on stretchable films, and they are applied to wearable and stretchable devices. In this study, three types of silver paste were prepared using three polyester binders with different Tg and molecular weights in order to impart elasticity to the conductive pattern itself. Rheological properties and DSC measurements were performed for each silver paste. Then, each silver paste was screen printing and cured by an IR dryer to evaluate adhesive strength, pencil hardness, resistance and surface shape change according to strain. As a result, it was found that the silver paste using a binder with a low Tg and a high molecular weight has the smallest resistance change depending on the strain. Namely, it was found that it is most preferable to use a binder with a low Tg and a high molecular weight as the stretchable electrode.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.149-156
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• 2019

A stretchable thermoelectric module consisting of 5 pairs of Bi₂Te₃-based hot-pressed p-n thermoelectric legs was processed by filling the module inside with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and removing the top and bottom substrates. Its stretchable characteristics and power generation properties were measured. The integrity of the module was kept well even after 10 strain cycles ranging from 0 to 0.1. With increasing the tensile strain to 0.2, the module circuitry became open because of joint failure between Cu electrodes and thermoelectric legs. The stretchable thermoelectric module exhibited an open circuit voltage of 4.6 mV with a temperature difference of 2.2K across both ends of thermoelectric legs, and changes in its open circuit voltage were below 5% for tensile strains of 0~0.1. Being elongated for a strain of 0.1, it exhibited the maximum output power of 18.5 ㎼ with the temperature difference of 2.2K across its both ends.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.147-154
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• 2022

We demonstrate a new double-layer structure for stretchable interconnects, where the top surface of a serpentine polyimide support is coated with a thin eutectic gallium-indium liquid metal layer. Because the liquid metal layer is constantly fixed on the solid serpentine body in this liquid-on-solid structure, the overall stretching is accomplished by widening the solid frame itself, with little variation in the total length and cross-sectional area of the current path. Therefore, we can achieve both invariant resistance and infinite fatigue life by combining the stretchable configuration of the underlying body with the freely deformable nature of the top liquid conductor. Further, we fabricated various types of double-layer interconnects as narrow as 10 ㎛ using the roll-painting and lift-off patterning technique based on conventional photolithography and quantitatively validated their beneficial properties. The new interconnecting structure is expected to be widely used in applications requiring high-performance and high-density stretchable circuits owing to its superior reliability and capability to be monolithically integrated with thin-film devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.363.2-363.2
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• 2016

Stretchable strain sensors are becoming essential in diverse future applications, such as human motion detection, soft robotics, and various biomedical devices. One of the well-known approaches for fabricating stretchable strain sensors is to embed conductive nanomaterials such as metal nanowires/nanoparticles, graphene, conducting polymer and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within an elastomeric substrate. Among various conducting nanomaterials, CNTs have been considered as important and promising candidate materials for stretchable strain sensors owing to their high electrical conductivity and excellent mechanical properties. In the past decades, CNT-based strain sensors with high stretchability or sensitivity have been developed. However, CNT-based strain sensors which show both high stretchability and sensitivity have not been reported. Herein, highly stretchable and sensitive strain sensors were fabricated by integrating single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and nylon textiles via vacuum-assisted spray-layer-by-layer process. Our strain sensors had high sensitivity with 100 % tensile strain (gauge factor ~ 100). Cyclic tests confirmed that our strain sensors showed very robust and reliable characteristic. Moreover, our SWNTs-based strain sensors were easily and successfully integrated on human finger and knee to detect bending and walking motion. Our approach presented here might be route to preparing highly stretchable and sensitive strain sensors with providing new opportunity to realize practical wearable devices.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.272-281
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• 2012

Flexible/stretchable electronics have recently focused, since their applications extend to emerging flexible displays, sensors, dielectric elastomer actuator and generators, and smart surgical tools. Flexible/stretchable electrodes should be synchronized with employing mechanical deformations of either flexing or stretching modes. Thus, the research area is one of the tough subjects, since the electrodes should keep their basic functions of electrodes under various mode of mechanical deformations. In this review, we discuss the recent development in the preparation and properties of such flexible/stretchable electrodes.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.525-530
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• 2023

Stretchable piezoelectric energy harvester (S-PEHs) based on composite materials are considered one of the potential candidates for realizing wearable self-powered devices for smart clothing and electronic skin. However, low energy conversion performance and expensive stretchable electrodes are major bottlenecks hindering the development and application of S-PEHs. Here, we fabricated the S-PEH by adopting the piezoelectric composites with enhanced stress transfer properties and kirigami-patterned textile electrodes. The optimum contents of piezoelectric BaTiO₃ nanoparticles inside the carbon nanotube/ecoflex composite were selected as 30 wt% considering the trade-off between stretchability and energy harvesting performance of the device. The final S-PEH shows an output voltage and mechanical stability of ~5 V and ~3,000 cycles under repeated 150% of tensile strain, respectively. This work presents a cost-effective and scalable way to fabricate stretchable piezoelectric devices for self-powered wearable electronic systems.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.55-62
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• 2019

Stiffness-gradient stretchable electronic packages of the soft PDMS/hard PDMS/FPCB structure were processed using the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the base substrate and the more stiff flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) as the island substrate. The elastic characteristics of the stretchable packages were estimated and their long-term reliabilities on stretching cycles and bending cycles were characterized. With 0.28 MPa, 1.74 MPa, and 1.85 GPa as the elastic moduli of the soft PDMS, hard PDMS, and FPCB, respectively, the effective elastic modulus of the soft PDMS/hard PDMS/FPCB package was estimated as 0.6 MPa. The resistance of the stretchable packages varied for 2.8~4.3% with stretching cycles ranging at 0~0.3 strain up to 15,000 cycles and for 0.9~1.5% with 15,000 bending cycles at a bending radius of 25 mm.