Abstract
Currently, electronic components having wavy structures are being actively studied because such wavy structures exhibit stretchability through flattening under stretching. The buckling of a thin film on an elastomer is an easy and inexpensive approach of creating a wavy structure and has attracted considerable attention. Despite its simplicity and easiness, the requirement of stretchers during film deposition limits fabrication methods, such as spin-coating and printing methods, and hinders their application in industry. Here, we eliminated the requirement of stretchers during film deposition by utilizing plastic deformation of the thin film and extending methods of developing a wrinkle structure. We used poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), the most widely used conductive polymer, as a thin film and adopted its stretchable wrinkle structure for stretchable electronic devices. The stretchability and durability of PEDOT:PSS were enhanced by sandwiching the PEDOT:PSS layer between two Parylene layers. The PEDOT:PSS layer was conductive at a stretch of up to 170%, and the change in resistance was less than 10% after 4000 cyclic loads. Additionally, we demonstrated a new concept of a flexible and stretchable light emitting device using the proposed Parylene/PEDOT:PSS/Parylene multi-layer and functionalized polydimethylsiloxane.
Highlights
Stretchability is an essential functionality of the new era electronic devices, such as deformable displays,1,2 electronic skins,3,4 and implantable monitoring devices.5–8 While flexible devices are bendable and rollable, stretchable devices can be attached onto a wide range of three-dimensional surfaces, including human bodies
The PEDOT:PSS layer was conductive at a stretch of up to 170%, and the change in resistance was less than 10% after 4000 cyclic loads
With a 150 nm thick PEDOT:PSS layer sandwiched between two 0.7 μm thick Parylene layers on PDMS, a stretchable wrinkle structure having periodical sinusoidal patterns of 20 μm wavelength was obtained by stretching the multi-layer/PDMS structure and releasing the stretch
Summary
Stretchability is an essential functionality of the new era electronic devices, such as deformable displays, electronic skins, and implantable monitoring devices. While flexible devices are bendable and rollable, stretchable devices can be attached onto a wide range of three-dimensional surfaces, including human bodies. Under re-stretch, the resulting wavy structure is flattened again, exhibiting stretchability This phenomenon is independent of the material of the thin films, and wrinkle structures on polymer, metal, and thin silicone devices have been presented in the literature. The fabrication of a multi-layered device with a wrinkle structure is difficult, and typically, thin film devices are fabricated separately and transferred to a stretched elastomer, as presented in the literature.. We propose a method of developing stretchable wrinkle structures without the requirement of a stretcher during film deposition. For the development of stretchable electronics, we present the wrinkle structures of PEDOT:PSS, which is the most widely used organic electronics polymer. Instead of laminating several functional layers on top of the PDMS, Parylene/PEDOT:PSS/Parylene multi-layers are deposited on top of the functionalized PDMS to achieve a stretchable light emitting device. This new concept of stretchable devices composed of Parylene/PEDOT:PSS/Parylene multi-layers and functionalized PDMS aids in the development of stretchable electronics
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