A single droplet-printed double-side universal soft electronic platform for highly integrated stretchable hybrid electronics

Abstract

Soft features in electronic devices have provided an opportunity of gleaning a wide spectrum of intimate biosignals. Lack of data processing tools in a soft form, however, proclaims the need of bulky wires or low-performance near-field communication externally linked to a "rigid" processor board, thus tarnishing the true meaning of "soft" electronics. Furthermore, although of rising interest in stretchable hybrid electronics, lack of consideration in multilayer, miniaturized design and system-level data computing limits their practical use. The results presented here form the basis of fully printable, system-level soft electronics for practical data processing and computing with advanced capabilities of universal circuit design and multilayer device integration into a single platform. Single droplet printing-based integration of rigid islands and core-shell vertical interconnect access (via) into a common soft matrix with a symmetric arrangement leads to a double-side universal soft electronic platform that features site-selective, simultaneous double-side strain isolation, and vertical interconnection, respectively. Systematic studies of island-morphology engineering, surface-strain mapping, and electrical analysis of the platform propose optimized designs. Commensurate with the universal layout, a complete example of double-side integrated, stretchable 1 MHz binary decoders comprised of 36 logic gates interacting with 9 vias is demonstrated by printing-based, double-side electronic functionalization.