A facile fabrication technique for stretchable interconnects and transducers via laser carbonization

This paper presents a facile, low-cost approach for fabricating highly-porous conductive carbon patterns on elastomeric substrates using laser carbonization of polyimide and its subsequent transfer onto a PDMS sheet. Using this technique, we fabricated stretchable interconnects and an array of piezoresistive tactile sensors. Raman spectra of pyrolyzed carbon regions revealed that under optimal laser settings, one can obtain highly porous carbon particles, nanotubes, and graphite sheets with sheet resistances as low as 50 Ω/. Characterizations of the stretchable patterns showed linear sensitivities of 8.912 kΩ/ε% and 518Ω/N in response to strain and normal force, respectively.