SBIR Phase I: Spatially-heterogeneous modulus substrates for stretchable electronics fabrication

SBIR 第一阶段：用于可拉伸电子制造的空间异质模量基板

• 批准号: 1721719
• 负责人: Radu Reit
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Ares Materials, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1721719&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Spatially; heterogeneous; modulus

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will assess the commercial viability of a new substrate material specifically designed for reducing the manufacturing complexity of stretchable electronics. Currently a $1.6 million market, stretchable electronics are expected to grow at a cumulative annual growth rate of 101.3% to reach $412 million in sales by 2023 due to the surge in wearable technologies, structural health monitoring devices, and medical diagnostic tools. In part, the current market size for stretchable electronics is limited by the immature manufacturing tools and techniques required, such as transfer- and nano-printing. The research and development funded by the Phase I SBIR could lead to a drastic reduction in manufacturing complexity, allowing stretchable electronic devices to be manufactured using current industry standard photolithographic techniques.The intellectual merit of this project lies in the ability to create electronic substrate materials with intrinsic stiffness differences (those without laminated layers, patterned fillers, etc.) that are defined using standard lithography techniques. Specifically, these substrates can be spatially segregated into regions of low Young's modulus (the soft matrix) and regions of high Young's modulus (the stiff islands) with a difference in modulus between these two regions reaching ratios of 1000:1 (stiff:soft). In the initial work, demonstrations of these spatially-heterogeneous modulus substrates show that spatial resolution can be achieved at the millimeter scale, and can introduce localized strain across the substrate as a function of the patterned stiff regions. The objectives for this project are focused on (a) engineering an optimal starting substrate material with the desired properties for the soft region and (b) demonstrating microfabrication of micropatterned thin-film components (feature sizes 20 microns) of stiff regions introduced into the material. This Phase I grant will culminate in prototype thin-film electronic components which maintain electrical performance at high global strains, while also showing the capacity of the substrate materials to withstand the harsh thermal and chemical conditions observed during microfabrication.

这个小型企业创新研究阶段I项目将评估专门设计用于降低可拉伸电子制造复杂性的新基材材料的商业生存能力。目前，由于可穿戴技术的激增，结构性健康监测设备和医疗诊断工具，到2023年，可拉长的电子产品预计将以101.3％的累计年增长率增长101.3％，销售额达到4.12亿美元，预计可拉长的电子产品将增长160万美元。在某种程度上，当前可拉伸电子产品的市场规模受所需的未成熟制造工具和技术（例如转移和纳米印刷）的限制。由I期SBIR资助的研究和开发可能会导致制造复杂性的急剧下降，从而使可拉伸的电子设备使用当前行业的标准光刻技术来制造。该项目的智力优点在于能够使用固有的层次差异（使用层压材料，模式填充剂等）来创建电子基质材料，以创建具有固定性差异的电子材料。具体而言，这些底物可以在空间上隔离到低杨的模量（软基质）的区域和高杨模量（僵硬的岛屿）区域，而这两个区域之间的模量差异为1000：1：1000：1（刚性：僵硬）。在最初的工作中，这些空间杂模的模量底物的演示表明，可以在毫米尺度上实现空间分辨率，并且可以在整个底物上引入局部菌株，这是图案化刚性区域的函数。该项目的目标集中于（a）具有软区域所需特性的最佳起始底物材料，以及（b）证明了引入材料中引入的刚性区域的微型图案薄膜组件（特征尺寸20微米）的微加工。该阶段I赠款将在原型薄膜电子组件中达到高潮，这些原型在高全球应变下保持电性能，同时还显示了底物材料的能力，可以承受在微生物制动过程中观察到的严酷的热和化学条件。