Numerical simulation of interconnects for the design of wearable flexible electronics for improved durability

• Main Author: Loh, Alison
• Other Authors: Ng Teng Yong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/75524
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Wearable flexible electronics including smart watches as well as medical devices such as hearing aids and pacemakers, etc. have now surfaced as a modern and fashionable class of technology in contrast to decades ago [3]. Its prospects in various areas of applications have brought about an increased investment in terms of time and resources for research and development. This research was conducted in order to determine the maximum capabilities of wearable electronics through the varying of parameters (i.e. geometry, material, boundary conditions, etc.), and to potentially discover new breakthroughs from existing researches. Numerical simulation was conducted through Abaqus, a software application used for both modeling and visualizing the finite element analysis results [1]. In order to find out the influences of each parameter on the final wrinkling and/or buckling of the electronics, one parameter was set as a free variable, while the rest remained as fixed variables. For example, analysis was conducted with the same material, width and pattern, but with varying thicknesses. This study has shown some nontrivial results indicating the non-proportional relationship between increasing widths of the interconnects and the amount of stress received on a whole. This suggests that the effects of stretching on both the left and right sides of the substrate are more spread out proportionally. On top of that, substrates that hold interconnects with a larger width are susceptible to higher levels of stress in the surroundings. Furthermore, mesh characteristics affect its ability to yield a successful analysis, while the change in parameters could potentially result in a compromise of electrical properties, etc. Additional observations will be further discussed in the paper.