Presentation overview
20-11-2012 Large area flexible and stretchable electronics enabling future products
Ex. SMART BLISTER
Kris Van de Voorde – I&I - imec Leuven
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
© Holst Centre
Large area flexible electronics, manufacturing
One of the key challenges: How to manufacture these products?
Large quantities and large sizes…
• roll-to-roll (R2R) manufacturing preferred
easier to make large quantities at low costs
• to be build on low cost flex foils
not on polyimide-foil: ~ 50 euro/m2
but on PET-foil: ~ 3 euro/m2
Printing preferred over lithographic patterning
• easier for roll-to-roll processing
• fine features without complicated masks
But we cannot print everything…
• making large area flex „smart‟: integration of conventional electronics needed
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
< 2
© Holst Centre < 3
Holst Centre: a solid partner in research
Holst Centre
• an independent, open innovation research institute having focus on large area flexible electronics; specific emphasis on manufacturing technologies
• located at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Netherlands (8000 m2 cleanrooms, state-of-the-art facilities)
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
Materials Analysis
Electronic
measurement
Thin Film
clean room
OLED Device
Processing
Reliability lab
Photonics
cleanroom
Electronic
Prototyping
8000 m2 cleanroom
Equipment
Engineering
Life Sciences
facilities
EMC lab
Holst
R2R lab
Holst
Offices
Düsseldorf
Eindhoven
Aachen
Amsterdam
Leuven
Netherlands
Belgium
© Holst Centre < 4
Holst Centre: a solid partner in research
• Independent, with reputed parents
founded by imec (1300 fte, Belgium) and TNO (4500 fte, The Netherlands)
established in 2005
• Critical mass
own staff 190; 25 nationalities
70 „resident‟ researchers
• Characteristics
bridging gap between industry and academia: working on technologies that will reach market in 3-5 years
perform joint research with industrial partners in Shared Research Programs
• Funding
supported by both Dutch government and industrial partners
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
© Holst Centre
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
< 5
Industrial partners from across the value chain
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Flexible
Smart Devices
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Flexible Smart Device
Label or other foil based product
that contains some sensor functionality
and associated electronics
that can be read out wirelessly
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Large area flexible electronics at Holst Centre
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
< 8
manufacturing technologies to make devices possible
special emphasis on roll-to-roll
• coating / printing of functional materials (OLED/OPV) on large areas
• printing of conductive structures on foil
• lamination of foils and integrating chips
• patterning on/of foils (imprint, laser)
flexible lighting (OLEDs) flexible solar cells intelligent food/pharma
© Holst Centre < 9 < 9
Integration technologies
Technologies under development…
• integrating components with foils
• lamination and interconnection of foils
LED
embedded chip
< 9
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
thin chips
© Holst Centre
Assembly, the next step, early 2012:
• move to single chip solution, dedicated ASIC
• integration as thin „bare die‟: easier foil handling, chip „hidden‟ in adhesive
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
< 10
without package
thinning chip down to 20-30 µm
chip becomes flexible
fully operational, 30 μm thick radio chip on PET foil
Enabling future smart products: Smart Blister
© Holst Centre
Trends in printed electronics
World’s first organic TFT microcontroller on a foil
(8 bit, 3000 transistors, running at 6 Hz) – ISSCC 2011
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But it will take quite some time until we can print this…
Si IC technology still the most logical way to give the large area flexible electronics product its
intelligence
Texas Instruments MSP430
microcontroller
16 bits, runs at 8 MHz, contains clock, AD & DA convertors, memory,…
at a cost of down to 1-2 euro
© Holst Centre
Holst Centre
Printing structures
• electronic circuitry (down to 50 um line/spacing)
• passives
• technologies
inkjet printing
(rotary R2R) screen printing
printed passives
R2R infrastructure electronic circuitry
© Holst Centre
General purpose NFC-compatible flexible sensor label
- demonstrated to work with humidity, temperature, amine, ethylene
Holst Centre
Examples of what can be made with technologies
printed antenna
printed battery
surface mounted chips
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Challenges of smart blister
• Assembled
• “3D”-system
• High cost
• Added to existing package,
• Fully integrated
• 2D-System in Foil
• Low cost, mass fabrication
• Roll to Roll compatible
© Holst Centre
A good case for large area flexible electronics:
• label with electronics, to be „glued‟ onto existing blisters
• comparably large surface area (15 x 5 cm)
• large quantities needed at low cost (PET foils)
• simple electronic circuitry • coarse pitch, can be printed
• single chip solution
Enabling future smart products: Smart Blister
< 16
dedicated ASIC (integrated sensor, radio, microcontroller)
breaklines for measuring pill push-through antenna
battery
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
© Holst Centre
• Features
3 chip solution (MC, RTC, NFC Eeprom)
All electronics in footprint blister
Printed resistance ladder
Monitor when en what pill is pushed through
NFC communication
Proto-type
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Enabling future smart products: Smart Blister
an essential ingredient: the ‘Smart Blister’
• intelligent medicine blister
• registers/stores time and date of pill push through
• wirelessly communicates with doctor through mobile phone
• team-up in Holst ecosystem to develop blister
Jeroen van den Brand - Large area flexible and stretchable electronics
< 18
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Examples of what can be made with technologies
Holst Centre
health monitoring functionality, integrated into a low cost, disposable foil-based patch
embedded chips (thickness 20 µm)
fine pitch Cu-on-PET circuitry
self-adhering
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Summary
• Classical electronics and foil technology meet in flexible integrated smart systems
Sensor enabled RFID “labels” are based on classic technologies
Sensors simple time temperature, humidity
Printed electronics lacks computing power
Little effort on integration on system level
• Hybrid integration
Printed circuitry has advantages over Cu: Integrated manufacturing possible
Classical components can be bonded reliable to PET
Sensors developed on Si can be transferred to foil
• Technology allows for production ready NFC labels
Smart Blister
Smart Label
• Outlook: electronics will disappear entirely into the substrate
© Holst Centre
-7x8 Led matrix designed for testing and developing the technology - functional samples are used as demonstrators
CMST – stretchable electronics