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Methods for fabrication of flexible

hybrid electronics

Robert A. Street, Ping Mei, Brent Krusor, Steve E. Ready,

Yong Zhang, et al.

Robert A. Street, Ping Mei, Brent Krusor, Steve E. Ready, Yong Zhang,
David E. Schwartz, Adrien Pierre, Sean E. Doris, Beverly Russo, Siv Kor,
Janos Veres, "Methods for fabrication of flexible hybrid electronics," Proc.
SPIE 10366, Hybrid Memory Devices and Printed Circuits 2017, 103660C (25
August 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2275561

Event: SPIE Organic Photonics + Electronics, 2017, San Diego, California,

United States

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 Invited Paper

Methods for fabrication of flexible hybrid electronics

Robert A. Street, Ping Mei, Brent Krusor, Steve E. Ready, Yong Zhang, David E. Schwartz, Adrien
Pierre, Sean E. Doris, Beverly Russo, Siv Kor, Janos Veres
Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto CA 94304

ABSTRACT
Printed and flexible hybrid electronics is an emerging technology with potential applications in smart labels, wearable
electronics, soft robotics, and prosthetics. Printed solution-based materials are compatible with plastic film substrates
that are flexible, soft, and stretchable, thus enabling conformal integration with non-planar objects. In addition,
manufacturing by printing is scalable to large areas and is amenable to low-cost sheet-fed and roll-to-roll processes. FHE
includes display and sensory components to interface with users and environments. On the system level, devices also
require electronic circuits for power, memory, signal conditioning, and communications. Those electronic components
can be integrated onto a flexible substrate by either assembly or printing. PARC has developed systems and processes
for realizing both approaches. This talk presents fabrication methods with an emphasis on techniques recently developed
for the assembly of off-the-shelf chips. A few examples of systems fabricated with this approach are also described.
Keywords: Printed electronics, sensors, hybrid electronics, flexible substrates, smart tags.

1. INTRODUCTION
Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) is an emerging technology with potential applications in smart labels, wearable
electronics, soft robotics, and prosthetics [1-4]. FHE combines printed devices on a flexible substrate with silicon
integrated circuits and other components. The printing approach fabricates circuit elements digitally by dispensing liquid
inks of desired conducting, semiconducting, dielectric and optical properties onto plastic substrates. Manufacture by
printing is versatile and scalable to large areas, and is amenable to low-cost sheet-fed and roll-to-roll processes. Device
applications include display and sensor components to interface with users and environments. However the printed
systems also require electronic circuits for power, memory, signal conditioning and communication, which are generally
not possible with current printing technology. Instead, conventionally fabricated integrated circuit (IC) chips, bare die,
and passive components must be transferred to plastic substrates and integrated in the printed circuitry. Although these
components introduce local mechanical rigidity to FHE systems, this hybrid approach takes advantage of high-
performance electronic materials and high-resolution patterning techniques available in microfabrication, making it
suitable for applications that require high-performance electronics. Some of the fabrication processes and prototype
systems are described here.

2. HYBRID SENSOR SYSTEMS

Flexible sensor arrays benefit from several attributes of print fabrication, including large area coverage and
customizability. Printed sensors include photosensors, pressure sensors, strain sensors, electrochemical and/or gas
sensors, either singly or in a combination of multiple sensing types on a substrate. Wireless communication of sensor
signals is often essential for the applications. The hybrid approach provides a method for achieving complex
functionality using the large library of existing commercially available components while maintaining many of the
benefits of printed devices - including customization, large area coverage and high sensitivity detection.
Mechanical and electrical integration are the primary issues for this hybrid approach. The elastic modulus mismatch
between soft, organic, mechanically flexible substrates and rigid pre-fabricated chips must be overcome to provide
systems which are mechanically flexible and reliable. Electrical integration can also be a significant issue as printed
devices typically have limited resolution (minimum feature size and spacing are 10s of microns) and often require thick
films to prevent leakage through dielectric layers that overcoat rough printed metals. These properties can lead to large
impedance and to operating voltages for some printed devices which are higher than the supply voltages typically
required for microelectronic components. The constraints imposed by these considerations determine the manufacturing
processes that are used

Hybrid Memory Devices and Printed Circuits 2017, edited by Emil J. W. List-Kratochvil
Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10366, 103660C · © 2017 SPIE · CCC code: 0277-786X/17/$18
doi: 10.1117/12.2275561

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10366 103660C-1

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 Figure 1 illustrates the typical components of a hybrid sensor tag and shows examples of devices made at PARC [5-7].
Devices typically comprise one or more printed sensors, printed electronics circuitry to provide gain, switching or other
logic functions, and silicon integrated circuits for communication or other complex functions. Power is provided by a
battery or energy harvesting element, and user-feedback can be bolstered with an optional display.

display [system
RF chip:
communication
ADC
Data Logging

Sensor–chip
interface
printed sensor(s)

battery or energy
harvest device

Figure 1. (Left) a schematic showing the elements of a typical hybrid sensor tag. (Right) some examples of sensor circuits
developed at PARC.
Additive printing of TFTs for the electronic circuitry combines patterning and deposition into a single step and requires
printers capable of accurately registering multiple patterned layers. Jet-printing systems typically use piezo-activated
print-heads with many independently addressable ejectors and other types of print heads, such as aerosol jet and
extrusion, are useful for fabricating hybrid systems. Progress in ink development and printing techniques have
significantly improved the performance of printable electronic materials [8], although printed TFTs still have device
performance issues. For example, although TFTs printed with organic semiconductors have mobility comparable to
amorphous Si, they suffer from larger device-to-device variation in mobility and threshold voltage and can have
significant long term instability.
2.1 Sensors with printed TFT logic circuits
Printed TFTs enable a variety of circuit elements and logic functions [9,10]. Figure 2 shows a prototype carbon
monoxide sensor combining a printed resistive sensor with a TFT gain circuit. The sensor is fabricated from
functionalized carbon nanotubes and is in series with a solution processed load resistor. The sensor changes resistance
when exposed to CO and the goal of the design was to detect a change of <1000 ppm with the output triggering an
external warning indicator. The gain stage was designed as a chain of inverters, fabricated with complementary printed
top gate TFTs. The gain of the four stage inverter was measured to be about 200, large enough that the output would
invert completely with a small change in the sensor resistance. The voltage across the sensor and load resistor was tuned
to the switching point of the inverter, and the circuit achieved the target performance with reasonable stability and low
drift.
1
Signal (normalized)

CNT
Inverter 0.995
sensor

0.99 ~500 ppm CO

Resistor response
0.985

0.98
20 30 40 50 60 70
Time (s)

Figure 2. A carbon nanotube based carbon monoxide sensor. (Left) the circuit comprising the sensor, a load resistor and four
inverters in series. (Right) response of the sensor to CO sufficient to trigger the output.
The TFT circuit uses complementary n-channel and p-channel devices fabricated with the same materials for source-
drain electrodes, gate dielectric and gate electrode. The organic semiconductors typically require an injection layer to
match the electrode work function to the semiconductor. Hence, even such a relatively simple circuit requires a
fabrication process involving several different materials.

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 Figure 3 shows another sensor prototype device that also combines printed sensors and TFTs. The design goal was a
circuit that could switch two different sensors to a single output. This was done with a 5 or 7 stage ring oscillator, with
two additional output inverters that switched a pass TFT connecting the two sensors to the output on opposite phases of
the oscillator. The ring oscillator was again fabricated with complementary organic TFTs and the circuit was designed
for resistive sensors. The output was connected to a scope but could also be connected to some form of readout IC. The
sensor resistance needed to be in the range 0.3-3 MΩ to match the resistance of the pass TFT. The figure shows results
with only one of the sensors printed, to show that the circuit alternatively switches from the sensor output to a zero
output from the omitted sensor. The sensor was a PEDOT:PSS film which responds to humidity and the variation in the
output voltage with humidity level is shown in the figure.
These two devices illustrate some of the many possible simple printed TFT circuits that can provide amplification and
control logic to achieve a variety of system performance attributes.
6
RH
0
5
9%
4
Signal (V)

2
28%

42%
57%
r ii Ì I',; _J
l

_
1

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
Time (s)

Figure 3. (Left) A sensor circuit designed to allow a pair of sensors to be read out from a single channel. The circuit
comprises a ring oscillator with an output stage that alternately transfers data from the two sensors. (Middle) the output with a
printed humidity sensor and the second sensor omitted, showing the output switched from the operating sensor to no response
for the second sensor. (Right) Flexible hybrid electronic circuit for a bio-marker sensor intended to be embedded in a
mouthguard.
2.2 Hybrid sensor systems
Figure 3 also shows a circuit developed for a biomarker sensor systems. The specific system is designed to measure
lactate in saliva and is intended to be a device embedded in a mouthguard. Lactate is an indicator of stress and hence
this type of device could be used to monitor athletes’ performance. The circuit is much more complex than the printed
circuits shown above and involves a potentiostat measurement, wireless communication, and ideally energy harvesting
for power. Hence a few ICs are needed as well as conventional passives, particularly decoupling capacitors for the ICs.
On the other hand, printed TFTs are not involved, so the printing processes are primarily for the two metal layers needed
for circuit interconnects. Instead the main challenge is attaching ICs and passives to the flexible substrate, and this is
discussed in the Section 3.
2.3 Electrochemical sensors
Organic electronic devices and flexible printed electronics are increasingly being developed for health monitoring based
on electrochemical sensing. The organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) device structure and some performance data
are shown in Figure 4 [11]. Compared to a conventional TFT, the gate dielectric is replaced by a liquid or solid
electrolyte in contact with a gate metal that is usually Ag/AgCl to give a well-defined voltage reference. The gate
electrode is usually separated from the channel as indicated in Fig. 4. The most common semiconductor in these devices
is PEDOT. Application of a gate-source voltage causes ions in the electrolyte to enter the semiconductor, inducing a
change in the carrier concentration and hence in source-drain current. The current is typically in the mA range and
switches with a change of ~0.5V gate voltage. The response time is slower than for a conventional TFT because it
involves ion migration, but is in the µs-ms range.
The OECT device provides sensitive measurements of voltage or ion concentration, and can be ion selective by
including an ion selective membrane. Hence, it has application as a sensing element for such biological and
environmental detection as analyte detection and measurements of local potentials for electrophysiology. The OECT
structure is consistent with solution processing and print-patterning.

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 10 VQ=-0.2 V
1E -2
8
6
¢E 42 1E-3
Electrolyte
ó o ö
VG=0.6V 1E-4

-4
-6 lE-5
Source Drain
-0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

VD (V) VG(V)

Figure 4. (Left) Schematic of an OECT showing the various components of the device. (Middle) Output and (Right) transfer
characteristics for an OECT with PEDOT:PSS as the channel material, Ag/AgCl as the gate, and 0.1 M NaCl as the
electrolyte.

3. FABRICATION PROCESSES
The sensor systems discussed in the previous section illustrate some of the challenges of fabricating hybrid printed
sensor tags, and also show the advantages of printing. The two sensor systems shown in Figs 2 and 3, have simple
circuits but require many different materials. Figure 5 shows the general structure that is fabricated. There is a layer of
printed metal that comprises the device electrodes and interconnects and materials for the sensors and load resistors. The
TFTs require n-channel and p-channel organic semiconductors which typically also require a very thin interface layer on
the source and drain electrodes to match the work function of the semiconductor. The TFT is completed with a gate
dielectric and metal electrode. In this scheme there are nine different layers and eight different materials. The
interconnect metal layer typically has high coverage on the substrate and often determines the overall size of the circuit.
In contrast, many of the other materials are used in very small quantity, and often a few drops or even a single drop of
material is needed for the sensor and each TFT. Additive processing is therefore highly effective in minimizing material
use.

TFT
gate
sensor, via dielectric
load OSC n,p
inject

SD, interconnect

Figure 5. Schematic diagram showing the different materials elements required for a device comprising sensors and TFTs,
such as illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.
An effective manufacturing strategy for this type of circuit is one in which a single printing system can print many
different materials. Fig. 6 shows a custom printing system developed at PARC that has this general capability. The
substrate is mounted on a translation stage and several different print-heads are on an orthogonal translation stage; both
stages having position accuracy of ~1 µm. Also mounted with the print heads are a UV and IR source, the former for
curing and the latter for photonic sintering. The printing system has a video image-capture system mounted near the print
head, to locate previously printed alignment marks and software adjusts the drop ejection to provide approximately 5 µm
registration.
This printing system can deposit different materials and also materials with wide range of viscosity, as shown in the
figure. The choice of print heads can be adapted to the needs of the specific materials required for a circuit, but in
general it should be possible to print several different materials in a single printer. Furthermore, although extrusion may
be too slow to print traces that require high coverage of the substrate, this printing modality is fast enough when only a
small area needs printing on each substrate. Hence the specialized materials needed for the sensor or even the TFTs can
have access to a range of printing modalities that may be less suitable for the high coverage interconnect materials. The
high coverage materials could be deposited rapidly and effectively by screen printing and gravure as well as ink-jet.

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 Extrusion 2 Extrusion 1 Ink Jet
Aerosol

Profile Prober

IR & UV
Lamp

Figure 6. (Top) photograph of a custom printer developed at PARC and comprising multiple fabrication modes, including ink-
jet, extrusion and aerosol printing as well as lamps for UV curing and photonic sintering.
3.1 Hybrid chip attach
Figure 7 shows alternative methods to attach a silicon IC to a flexible substrate with printed metal traces. One approach
is to bond the IC with contacts facing up and to print the metal traces over the edge of the IC to the substrate. For a
normal IC, printing over the edge is difficult with conventional printing techniques because of the height difference
between the substrate and the IC surface. One solution to the problem is to form a ramp at the edge of the IC and print
up the ramp, and another solution is to embed the IC in the substrate to form a planar surface. There is increasing
interest in thinned ICs to enhance flexibility and it may prove practical to print over the edge of the IC if it is thinned to
20-30 micron thickness. Figure 7 shows examples of these approaches.
The alternative approach is to bond the IC with contacts down. For many flexible plastic substrates, the thermal budget
is insufficient to use solder and an alternative is to use anisotropic conducting film or paste (ACF or ACP), for which the
bond temperature is low enough for a plastic substrate. Fig. 7 shows an experimental pick and place system used to
explore the materials and processes needed to bond a range of chip sizes, as well as passives.

a b

Figure 7. (Top) Schematic illustration of some of the methods to attach silicon ICs to a flexible printed circuit. (Lower right)
examples of chip attach using some of the techniques discussed. (Lower left) Photograph of an exploratory pick and place
system for flexible substrates developed at PARC.

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 4. SUMMARY
Flexible hybrid sensor systems based on printed electronics and silicon ICs on flexible plastic substrates have achieved
working prototypes with the performance required for several potential applications. Hybrid integration with silicon ICs
is an important technology component for many applications, particularly those requiring wireless communication. The
transition from demonstrator circuits to manufactured products requires the solution to various fabrication challenges.

5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from Xerox, DARPA, NBMC, FlexTech, Nextflex, ARPA-E and Thin Film
Electronics.

6. REFERENCES
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[3] Cho, K.-J. et al., “Review of manufacturing processes for soft biomimetic robots,” Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf., 10,
171-181 (2009).
[4] Tee, B. C.-K. et al., “A skin-inspired organic digital mechanoreceptor,” Science, 350, 313-316 (2015).
[5] Street, R. A.; Ng, T. N.; Schwartz, D. E.; Whiting, G. L.; Lu, J. P.; Bringans, R. D.; Veres, “From Printed Transistors
to Printed Smart Systems,” Proc. IEEE, 103, 607–616 (2015).
[6] Ng, T. N.; Schwartz, D. E.; Mei, P.; Krusor, B.; Kor, S.; Veres, J.; Broms, P.; Eriksson, T.; Wang and O. Hagel,
“Printed Dose‐Recording Tag Based on Organic Complementary Circuits and Ferroelectric Memories,” Sci. Rep., 5,
13457 (2015).
[7] Schwartz, D. E., and Ng, T. N., "Comparison of static and dynamic printed organic shift registers." IEEE Electron
Device Lett. 34, 271-273 (2013).
[8] Arias, A. C., MacKenzie, J. D., McCulloch, I., Rivnay, J. and Salleo, A., “Materials and Applications for Large Area
Electronics: Solution-Based Approaches,” Chem. Rev., 110, 3–24 (2010).
[9] Ng, T. N., Russo, B., Krusor, B., Kist, R., and Arias, A. C., “Organic inkjet-patterned memory array based on
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