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March 28, 2008
And now, Stretchable Silicon Chips
By Richard Grigonis Executive Editor, IP Communications Group
The world of science and technology now brings for a new type of “stretchable” silicon integrated circuit that can bend and fold, and can wrap around three-dimensional shapes such as body parts, clothing, or mechanical parts such as aircraft wings and fuselages to monitor structural properties, and can continue to function perfectly during stretching, compression
and folding.
In paper published in the journal Science, American researchers say such chips can perform at about the same processing level as conventional flat, rigid chips.
“The notion that silicon cannot be used in such applications because it is intrinsically brittle and rigid has been tossed out the window,” said John Rogers, a Founder Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, one of the paper’s authors. Rogers is also a researcher at the Beckman Institute.
In December 2005, Rogers and his group announced development of a one-dimensional, stretchable form of single-crystal silicon with micron-sized, wave-like geometries. Now, Rogers and collaborators at Northwestern University, and the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore have extended this concept into two dimensions. The concept involves bonding a plastic sheet to a rigid substrate with adhesive, then building complex integrated circuits using conventional silicon fabrication techniques, then dissolving the adhesive so that the circuits embedded on the plastic sheet can be peeled away. Finally the sheet is bonded to pre-strained rubber, creating the bendable silicon chips. When flexed they tend to fold into patterns resembling the bellows of an accordion or concertina. Thus, the secret of the flexibility is the thinness of the silicon.
Professor Zhenqiang Ma of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who also works on flexible silicon circuitry, told the BBC News: “Completely integrated, extremely bendable circuits have been talked about for many years but have not been demonstrated before… This is the first one.”
Other companies and researchers are developing other types of flexible electronics, such as “organic” electronics, also known as plastic electronics, which are devices made from organic polymers, such as flexible “electronic paper” displays.
Imagine a digital camera that can take a 360-degree photo by wrapping a chip around the barrel of a camera lens. Or smart clothing, such as a smart latex glove for surgeons that could detect vital signs during an operation.
“Most of our energy is now focused on applications,” said Professor Rogers.
The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Richard Grigonis is Executive Editor of TMC’s (News - Alert) IP Communications Group. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
and folding.
In paper published in the journal Science, American researchers say such chips can perform at about the same processing level as conventional flat, rigid chips.
“The notion that silicon cannot be used in such applications because it is intrinsically brittle and rigid has been tossed out the window,” said John Rogers, a Founder Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, one of the paper’s authors. Rogers is also a researcher at the Beckman Institute.
In December 2005, Rogers and his group announced development of a one-dimensional, stretchable form of single-crystal silicon with micron-sized, wave-like geometries. Now, Rogers and collaborators at Northwestern University, and the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore have extended this concept into two dimensions. The concept involves bonding a plastic sheet to a rigid substrate with adhesive, then building complex integrated circuits using conventional silicon fabrication techniques, then dissolving the adhesive so that the circuits embedded on the plastic sheet can be peeled away. Finally the sheet is bonded to pre-strained rubber, creating the bendable silicon chips. When flexed they tend to fold into patterns resembling the bellows of an accordion or concertina. Thus, the secret of the flexibility is the thinness of the silicon.
Professor Zhenqiang Ma of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who also works on flexible silicon circuitry, told the BBC News: “Completely integrated, extremely bendable circuits have been talked about for many years but have not been demonstrated before… This is the first one.”
Other companies and researchers are developing other types of flexible electronics, such as “organic” electronics, also known as plastic electronics, which are devices made from organic polymers, such as flexible “electronic paper” displays.
Imagine a digital camera that can take a 360-degree photo by wrapping a chip around the barrel of a camera lens. Or smart clothing, such as a smart latex glove for surgeons that could detect vital signs during an operation.
“Most of our energy is now focused on applications,” said Professor Rogers.
The work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Richard Grigonis is Executive Editor of TMC’s (News - Alert) IP
Communications Group. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
