MEMS Technology for Flex and Stretch Monolithic Silicon Systems

Despite the plethora of electronics and transducers that exists nowadays, most of them are rigid. This is a consequence of the fact that they are mainly based on silicon, which is a stiff and brittle material by nature. The rigidity limits their capabilities and is currently restricting the development of e.g. wearable electronics, medical equipment and internet of things applications. Flexible and stretchable electronics would eliminate these restrictions by enabling free-form transformations, such as: compression, stretching, bending and twisting. It would enable their seamless integration with soft and organically shaped objects, which are abundantly present in our environment.

The objective of this dissertation is the development and characterization of a flexible and stretchable monolithic silicon platform, based on conventional wafer processing techniques. By enabling the use of standard (100) wafers, the stretchable monolithic silicon is made more attractive compared to current stretchable silicon state-of-the-art approaches, which are based on SOI wafers or rare crystal orientations. Moreover, the capabilities to incorporate actual electric circuits and transducers will be investigated, as such progressing the field of stretchable silicon electronics, sensors and actuators.