Nanoparticle Circuits Inside Elastomers for Flexible Electronics: High Conductivity under Cyclic Deformation

Abstract Creating electrical circuits inside elastomers is of significant interest for flexible electronics and robotics. Maintaining high conductivity under repeated mechanical deformation depends on circuit geometry, substrate engineering, and circuit material properties. Currently, the circuit material either allows high mechanical deformation but low conductivity or has low as-fabricated conductivity that undergoes significant irreversible change under mechanical deformation. We show, for the first time, that this tradeoff can be broken by mixing dissimilar shape nanoparticles for rapid intense pulsed light sintering after elastomeric encapsulation. This creates an additional avenue to achieve parity between conventional electronics and elastomer-encapsulated flexible electronics.