Abstract
In the recent years, there has been a growing interest towards printed stretchable electronics used in diagnostics, health-monitoring, and wearable applications. Double-sided electronic circuits with through-substrate vias offer a solution where the amount of printed circuitry and assembled SMDs (surface-mount devices) in direct contact with the human skin can be minimized. This improves not only the wearability and cost-effectiveness of the printed electronic devices but also the product safety and comfort to wear. Another factor decreasing the unit costs in printed electronics is the use of high volume, high speed, and continuous roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing processes. In this current paper, a full R2R process for the manufacturing of through-substrate vias on stretchable thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) substrate was developed and verified. The through-substrate via-holes were manufactured in R2R using either laser-cutting or die-cutting. Rotary screen printing was used to print conductive tracks onto both sides of the stretchable substrate and to fill the via-holes. Eventually, conductive and stretchable through-substrate vias with low sheet resistance and low resistance deviation were reliably achieved with the developed process.
Highlights
Stretchable printed electronic devices have lately been utilized in diagnostics, health-monitoring, and wearable applications
Roll-to-roll (R2R) compatible manufacturing of the through-substrate interconnections has been studied in sheet-to-sheet (S2S) environment using flexible substrates. [6, 15,16,17,18,19] in order to increase the throughput and lower the manufacturing costs significantly, the development of the full R2R processes of the through-substrate interconnects with stretchable substrates is of great importance
Through-substrate via-holes can be produced in R2R cutting processes using both the rotary die-cutting and the CO2 lasercutting
Summary
Stretchable printed electronic devices have lately been utilized in diagnostics, health-monitoring, and wearable applications. Most of the printed layers and assembled surface-mount-devices (SMDs) should be placed onto the opposite sides of the substrate The realization of such double-sided electronic structures requires the manufacturing of reliable interconnections through the substrate by means of via-holes. The filling of the through-substrate via-holes is of great importance for the formation of reliable interconnections with low resistance. This has been achieved by printing multiple layers of conductive ink or adhesive directly into the via-holes either in a separate process or simultaneously with the printing of the electronic circuitry. The R2R process consists of up to three different steps: (1) cutting of the via-holes using a CO2 laser or a rotary die-cutter, (2) rotary screen printing of via-hole fillings, and (3) rotary screen printing of required electrodes, wirings, and electronic circuits onto both sides of the stretchable substrate
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