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Flexible electronics with variable elasticity

28.12.2012

Swiss engineers have learned how to create composite materials with variable elasticity, which can be useful for creating flexible electronics. The work of scientists was published in the journal Nature Communications, and its summary is given by LiveScience.

Creating elastic electronics requires protecting those parts of the device that cannot be stretched, such as integrated microchips. At the same time, the direct connection of brittle and elastic components leads to the fact that when stretched, such devices are torn at the junctions.

Swiss engineers proposed to solve this problem by creating a material with elasticity that changes smoothly from point to point. To do this, they used a composite material - polyurethane with filler. By varying the amount of filler, the authors could make different parts of the material more or less elastic. At the same time, the mechanical properties in different parts of the same material differed by five orders of magnitude.

As a prototype, engineers made an elastic bandage with an integrated LED that could stretch more than three times. The LED was surrounded in the device by a zone of low elasticity, which, when stretched, prevented damage to it.

The authors believe that such materials can be useful not only for creating flexible electronics, but also for prosthetic tendons, which also have variable elasticity. Recently, Japanese engineers introduced a fabric with integrated LEDs, which, like the new material, was flexible, but could not stretch.

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