Tape transfer atomization patterning of liquid alloys for microfluidic stretchable wireless power transfer.

Seung Hee Jeong,Zhigang Wu,Klas Hjort

doi:10.1038/srep08419

Seung Hee Jeong, Zhigang Wu + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep08419

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Abstract

Stretchable electronics offers unsurpassed mechanical compliance on complex or soft surfaces like the human skin and organs. To fully exploit this great advantage, an autonomous system with a self-powered energy source has been sought for. Here, we present a new technology to pattern liquid alloys on soft substrates, targeting at fabrication of a hybrid-integrated power source in microfluidic stretchable electronics. By atomized spraying of a liquid alloy onto a soft surface with a tape transferred adhesive mask, a universal fabrication process is provided for high quality patterns of liquid conductors in a meter scale. With the developed multilayer fabrication technique, a microfluidic stretchable wireless power transfer device with an integrated LED was demonstrated, which could survive cycling between 0% and 25% strain over 1,000 times.

Highlights

Stretchable electronics offers unsurpassed mechanical compliance on complex or soft surfaces like the human skin and organs
Using eutectic gallium based liquid alloys in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a direct current (DC) circuit interconnector was first demonstrated[8] with Indalloy 608 while we demonstrated the first high performance microfluidic radio frequency (RF) antenna using Galinstan[9,10], and similar approaches have later been implemented for antennas with the eutectic gallium indium alloy, EGaIn11,12
With tape transfer atomization patterning and the corresponding cut tape mask, Fig. 1 (d), a stretchable long coil antenna for a wireless power transfer device was shown in Fig. 1 (e)

Summary

Introduction

Stretchable electronics offers unsurpassed mechanical compliance on complex or soft surfaces like the human skin and organs. We present a new technology to pattern liquid alloys on soft substrates, targeting at fabrication of a hybrid-integrated power source in microfluidic stretchable electronics. By atomized spraying of a liquid alloy onto a soft surface with a tape transferred adhesive mask, a universal fabrication process is provided for high quality patterns of liquid conductors in a meter scale. With the developed multilayer fabrication technique, a microfluidic stretchable wireless power transfer device with an integrated LED was demonstrated, which could survive cycling between 0% and 25% strain over 1,000 times. Further with a multilayer processing and hybrid integration of rigid components, a microfluidic stretchable wireless power transfer device with a light emitting diode (LED) as an indicator is demonstrated, which could survive cycling strain between 0% and 25% over 1,000 times

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