Inorganic Materials and Assembly Techniques for Flexible and Stretchable Electronics

In recent years, important progress has been made in developing design strategies, materials, and associated assembly techniques that provide empowering approaches to electronics with unconventional formats, ones that allow useful but previously hard to realize attributes of function. Notable examples of the progress made include: light weight, large area, high performance electronics, optics, and photonics; electronic and optical systems with curvilinear shapes and capacities for accommodating demanding forms of mechanical flexure; new device form factors for use in sensing and imaging; the integration of high performance electronics in 3-D with demanding nanometer design rules; functional bioresponsive electronics; and advanced hybrid materials systems for lighting, energy storage, and photovoltaic energy conversion. In this report we highlight advances that are enabling such promising capabilities in technology-specifically, the fabrication of device elements using high performance inorganic electronic materials joined with printing and transfer methods to effect their integration within functional modules. We emphasize in this review considerations of the design strategies and assembly techniques that, when taken together, circumvent limitations imposed by approaches that integrate circuit elements within compact, rigid, and essentially planar form factor devices, and provide a transformational set of capabilities for high performance flexible/stretchable electronics.