(11) Specifically, the use of epidermal devices is enhanced if they have a similar stretchability as skin for a comfortable user experience. (8) Stretchables are used also in ECG/EEG monitoring, (9) sweat analyses, (10) and human body temperature measurements. (7) For example, skin-mounted glucose monitoring devices are already on the markets. (3−6) With regard to healthcare, stretchable and wearable electronic devices have been predicted to simplify measurements for diagnostics, and this could enable real-time point of care diagnostics. (2) Plenty of attention has been paid to the development of technologies to be applied in wearables and health-care applications. Compared to flexibility, stretchability enables comfortable skin mounting (1) and easy integration into clothing.

Together with flexible and printed electronics, stretchable electronics has recently attracted increasing amount of research interests. We also demonstrated R2R compatible PDMS encapsulation of electrical interconnections that increased the strain repetition durability by a factor of 2. We demonstrated silver interconnects whose conductivity remains sufficient for signal transmission, for example, in sensor structures under repeated 20% strain over 100 cycles.

We used roll-to-roll (R2R) rotary screen printing that has been conventionally applied in high-throughput fabrication of electronics on flexible, but not stretchable, substrates. In this work, we demonstrated a high-volume production of stretchable electrical interconnections on PDMS substrates. As a substrate, PDMS enables high stretchability and easy integration of other parts made of PDMS. It enables the realization of a variety of mechanical and optical functions besides being a substrate for other processes or applications. Highly elastic polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) has been for decades a widely used material in prototyping purposes. Stretchable electronics has attracted much interest recently because of its potential applications in the area of wearable electronics and healthcare.

Print conductor any good