This document summarizes a technical seminar on flexible electronics presented by Ginnam Mahalaxmi. The seminar covered an introduction to flexible electronics, fabrication technologies, flexible circuit boards and components, manufacturing processes, materials and thickness used, market growth and applications. Flexible electronics uses flexible plastic substrates to assemble electronic circuits. Key fabrication methods discussed were roll-to-roll processing and inkjet printing. Applications mentioned include wearables, displays, solar cells and medical devices. Advantages of flexible electronics are lighter weight, smaller size and bendable form factors.

1. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
A Technical Seminar
on
“Flexible Electronics”
Presentation By
GINNAM MAHALAXMI
[1ST15EC134]
Dept. of ECE, SaIT.
Under the guidance of
Prof. S.SOWNDESWARI
Professor,
Dept. of ECE,
SaIT, Bengaluru - 560097
Technical Seminar Coordinators
Prof. YOGANADINI P
Prof. SUDHA J.
Dept. of ECE,
SaIT ,Bengaluru - 560097

2. CONTENT
• Introduction to Flexible Electronics
• Technologies and Integration Processes
• Fabrication Technology
• Flexible circuit board
• Flexible electronic components
• Manufacturing of flexible circuits & device
• Material and thickness
• Market Growth
• Applications
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Reference & Conclusion

3. Introduction to Flexible Electronics
• Flexible electronics, also known as flex circuits, is a
technology for assembling electronic circuits by
mounting electronic devices on flexible plastic
substrates.
• FLEXIBLE ELECTRONICS can actually be defined
as the electronic devices which can be bent and
stretched into any shape at any time.

4. Flexible Electronics
A generic large-area electronic structure is composed
of :
• Substrate
• Back-plane
• Front-plane
• Encapsulation

5. Technologies and Integration Process
Any Manufacturable device has four essential characteristics:
• Superior and pre-specified performance, with reproducibility, uniformity, and
reliability
• High yield to acceptable tolerance
• Simulations exist for both reverse engineering during development and right-first-
time design
• Proven adequate in-service lifetime.
(Cont...)

6. Fabrication Technology for Flexible Electronics
• Fabrication on sheets by Batch Processing..
 On a rigid carrier, facing up and loose
 In a tensioning frame, facing up or down
 In a frame, facing down and loose
• Fabrication On Web by roll-to-roll Processing
• Additive Printing

7. Flexible Circuit boards
Flex circuits are made up of flexible plastic
substrate usually polyimide, Polyester or
thin sheets of glass

8. Flexible electronic components
• Electronic components such as transistors are being made from silicon
nanomembrane usually called TFT’s(thinfilm transistors)
• Flexible resistors & capacitors structures are shown diagrammatically usually called
thin flim resistors and thin flim capacitors

9. Resistor Capacitor

10. Lithium-ion flexible
battery
Non volatile
Memories

11. Flexible Displays
normally
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are used instead of a back-
light for flexible displays.

13. • For the manufacturing of flexible electronics “Roll to Roll”
(R2R) processing inkjet printing and soft lithography process
is used.
Steps of R2R processing
Manufacturing of flexible circuits & devices

14. Layers materials and their thickness
Base material or
substrate
1.Flexible polymer flim
2.Polyethylene terephthalate
3. Thin glass sheet
12-125 µm
Conductive path 1. Copper foil
2. Polyester
3. Graphene
200 nm

15. organic large-
area
estimated at
over
$200M, the global market is expected to increase to a
$800M market by 2020.
Market Growth

16. Applications
• Automotive field. Space crafts. Foldable displays.
• Military. Electronics Devices. Health Care
• Displays and Human- machine interaction
• Wireless systems
• Electronics Embedded in the living environment
Flexible solar cells
Flexible outwears
• Energy management and mobile devices

17. Hexoskin
• Heart rate monitoring
• Respiratory sensing
• Activity monitoring

18. Flexible Electronic products

19. Stretchable Lithium ion battery
Developed by University of llinois at Urbana

20. Flexible Devices

22. ADVANTAGES
• light weight
• Smaller dimensions required
• Space saving
• Foldable and bendable
• Increased circuitry density
• Wide Viewing Angle
DISADVANTAGES
• Initial investment may be
expensive
• Integration of components would be
challenge for engineers
• Precision machines required
• Lifetime
• Manufacturing

23. Conclusion
• Flexible electronics in future will play a part in
field of security, entertainment,biomedical
applications and has lead to innovative
applications
• The demand for flexible electronic products at
present may not be noticed but upto 2020 there
would be huge demand and preference will be
given to the flexible products in market
Pic. Bionic Eye

24. References
• [1] www.wikkipedia.org.in/flexibleelectronics
• [2] "Printed Circuit Techniques" by Cledo Brunetti and Roger W. Curtis
(National Bureau of Standards Circular 468 first issued 15 November
1947)
• [3] Gleskova, H., Wagner, S., Gasˇpar k, V. & Kova´cˇ, P. 150uC
Amorphous Silicon thin-Film Transistor technology for Polyimide
Substrates. J.Electrochem. Soc.148, G370-G374 (2001)
• [4] Cotema, coating machinery GmbH www.cotema.de
• [5]https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/printed-
electronics-market-197.html

25. THANKYOU