| Stretchable, multimodal, large-area sensor arrays can be utilized for many applications such as structural health monitoring of vehicles and infrastructure, tactile feedback for robotics, aerospace research and design, electronic textiles, tactile sensors for flexible displays, and low-cost sensors for consumer applications. These applications have a unique set of requirements, including support for multimodal sensory input, conformability to non-planar substrates, and low-cost, large area fabrication. This research investigates a novel microelectronic process for fabricating sensors and interconnects on polymer substrates, where metal patterns serve both as functional electrode layers and as in-situ masks for excimer laser photoablation. This approach reduces the number of processing steps and photomasks, is scalable for large-area arrays, and is adaptable for a variety of materials and designs.;This novel process is used for interconnect and sensor fabrication. Rectilinear, meandering, and redundant interconnect structures have been designed, modeled, fabricated and tested to have a uniaxial stretchability of up to 50%. Numerous capacitive MEMS devices, including pressure sensors, shear stress sensors, and condenser microphones, have been modeled and fabricated. Individual 200 microm capacitive sensors show a capacitance change of 60 fF with an applied pressure of 500 kPa; these sensors also are fabricated as a sensor array to demonstrate successful readout of different pressure profiles. InGaZnO amorphous oxide semiconductor thin-film transistors are fabricated and tested using the same flexible substrate to demonstrate compatibility with active devices. The research concludes with large-area considerations including adaptability to large-area fabrication processes and design optimizations to maximize robustness and minimize vulnerability to defects. |
