Stretchable electronics based on inorganic semiconducting materials

Abstract

Recent progress in the growth and development of unconventional electronics engineered on plastic and even elastomeric substrates with flexibility and stretchability has opened up new opportunities for unprecedented applications over the past few years, especially of relevance in electronic skin and bio-integrated systems. The associated assembly technologies provide the ability to accommodate demanding forms of unusual shapes, mechanical flexure, and stretching structures that are not allowed for conventional silicon-based applications. Specifically, mechanically guided designs with advanced classes of inorganic electronic components including metal-oxides and nanostructures can offer mechanical properties with superior performance and functionality to organic materials, which have comparatively limited characteristics, allowing high-density device integration onto various soft and curvilinear shapes. This review summarizes the several approaches and current state-of-the art of the development of stretchable electronics based on inorganic semiconducting materials. Trends from the diverse structural geometries for functional device designs and fundamental principles of device components and modules to the key fabrication methods and the essential investigations, various stretchable device applications and recent developments in system demonstrations are fully covered. Finally, future prospects and perspectives on the challenges and opportunities for the inorganic based stretchable electronics are also provided.