Journal
ADVANCED MATERIALS INTERFACES
Volume 5, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/admi.201701596
Keywords
eutectic gallium-indium; liquid phase microelectronics; microelectronics component integration; soft electronics; stretchable electronics
Funding
- ONR [N00014-16-2301, N00014-14-10778, 34]
- Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance, a partnership of Carnegie Mellon, Lehigh University
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED)
- Siemens Corporate Technology USA
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) has attracted significant attention in recent years for its use in soft and stretchable electronics. However, advances in scalable fabrication approaches and effective electromechanical interfaces between liquid metal (LM) traces and microelectronics are still needed to create functional soft and stretchable electronics. In this study, EGaIn-metal interfacing for the effective integration of surface-mount microelectronics with LM interconnects is investigated. The electrical interconnects are produced by creating copper patterns on a soft-elastomer substrate, and subsequently exposing the substrate to EGaIn, which selectively wets the Cu traces. To create strong electromechanical connection between EGaIn and microelectronics, the terminals of the LM-coated traces are soldered to the metal pins of the packaged microelectronic circuits using a novel HCl-vapor treatment. In combination, the fabrication and microelectronics-interfacing approaches enable creating stretchable circuits composed of LM wiring and packaged microelectronics. It is found that the HCl-vapor treatment significantly improves electrical conductivity at the LM-pin interface while enhancing the strain limit of the soft circuits and the reproducibility of the interface. The applicability of this approach in creating soft-matter circuits is demonstrated through two illustrative examplesa circuit with a digital 9-axis inertial measurement unit and a temperature sensor; and a circuit with a 3-axis analog accelerometer.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available