A metallic conductor layer on an elastomeric substrate has a limited stretchability. Application of a conductive rubber layer underneath the metal can enhance the flexibility and preserve the electrical connection even at high strains. Silicone and polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) have been tested as elastic substrates. A repeatable resistance-strain behavior up to 100% strain is achieved for a multilayer conductor with PDMS substrate. It is found that this type of substrate has a large influence on the size of cracks on the metal layer.
Fabrice, A., Schmitt, P.M., Gehin, C., Delhomme, G., McAdams, E. and Dittmar, A. ( 2005). Flexible Technologies and Smart Clothing for Citizen Medicine, Home Healthcare, and Disease Prevention, Inform. Technol. Biomed., IEEE Trans., 9: 325-336.
2.
Zhou, L., Wanga, A., Wu, S.-C., Sun, J., Park, S. and Jackson, T.N. ( 2006). All-organic Active Matrix Flexible Display, Appl. Phys. Lett., 88: 083502- 083503.
3.
Mach, P., Rodriguez, S.J., Nortrup, R., Wiltzius, P. and Rogers, J.A. ( 2001). Monolithically Integrated, Flexible Display of Polymer-dispersed Liquid Crystal Driven by Rubber-stamped Organic Thin-film Transistors, Appl . Phys. Lett., 78: 3592-3594.
4.
Linz, T., Kallmayer, C., Aschenbrenner, R. and Reichl, H. ( 2005). Embroidering Electrical Interconnects with Conductive Yarn for the Integration of Flexible Electronic Modules into Fabric. In: Ninth IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, 2005, Osaka, Japan, pp. 86-89.
5.
Hakozaki, M. , Oasa, H. and Shinoda, H. ( 1999). Telemetric Robot Skin , IEEE Int. Conf. Robot. Automat., 2: 957-961.
6.
Flandin, L. , Hiltner, A. and Baer, E. ( 2001). Interrelationships between Electrical and Mechanical Properties of a Carbon Black-filled Ethylene-Octene Elastomer, Polymer, 42: 827-838.
7.
Princy, K.G. , Joseph, R. and Kartha, S. ( 1998). Studies on Conductive Silicone Rubber Compounds, J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 69: 1043-1050.
8.
Wagner, S., Lacour, S.P., Jones, J., Hsu, P.-hI., Sturm, J.C., Li, T. et al. (2004). Electronic Skin: Architecture and Components , Physica E, 25: 326-334.
9.
Huang, H. and Spaepen, F. ( 2000). Tensile Testing of Free-standing Cu, Ag and Al Thin Films and Ag/Cu Multilayers, Acta Mater., 48: 3261-3269.
10.
Lacour, S.P. , Wagner, S., Huang , Z. and Suo , Z. (2003). Stretchable Gold Conductors on Elastomeric Substrates, Appl. Phys. Lett., 82: 2404-2406.
11.
Lacour, S.P. , Jones, J., Wagner , S., Li , T. and Suo , Z. (2005). Stretchable Interconnects for Elastic Electronic Surfaces, Proc. IEEE, 93: 1459-1467.
12.
Mandlik, P. , Lacour, S.P., Li , J.W., Chou, S.Y. and Wagner, S. (2006). Fully Elastic Interconnects on Nanopatterned Elastomeric Substrates, Electron Devic. Lett., IEEE, 27: 650-652.
