Flexible integrated circuits: design, manufacture and applications
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Abstract: Flexible electronics refers to the technology of integrating different material and functional components on flexible substrates, to obtain light, flexible and reconfigurable systems. It subversively changes the rigid physical form of traditional electronic systems. The core of flexible electronics is the design and fabrication of flexible integrated circuits. This talk begins with the introduction of flexible circuit design and fabrication technologies developed by our group, ranging from the strain engineering of high-performance semiconductor materials to a series of novel transfer printing techniques of ultra-thin chips. Aiming at the mass production of flexible integrated circuits, the wafer grinding method reinforced with nano diamond enables the thinning of a 12-inch wafer to about 25 microns, followed by dice singulation via high-energy laser beam to produce individual flexible chips of independent functions. Chip pick-up, transfer, interconnection, encapsulation and integration of passive devices leads to the finalized flexible integrated system. The above flexible circuit manufacturing technologies lead to more than 40 authorized patents and 8 types of process production lines for flexible integrated circuits, including flexible chip thinning lines, flexible SIP packaging lines, and high-precision SMT pilot lines. The manufacturing technologies of integrated circuit pave the way for many applications ranging from biomedical engineering, wearable devices, nerve regulation, to flexible rotation telemetry systems and flexible wireless data acquisition systems. As an outlook, flexible integrated circuits technologies show great potential in facilitating the integration and development of the Industrial Internet of Things.
Biography: Xue Feng is a tenured professor, the founder and current director of the center for Flexible Electronics Technology in Tsinghua University. Prof. Feng’s research focuses on mechanics in unusual environment and the flexible electronics. He has published more than 200 papers in high-profile journals such as Science Advances, Advanced Materials and National Science Review, and has been granted with more than 150 patents. He is the winner of a series of high-level awards, including China Youth Science and Technology Award, Qiushi Award of Technology Application for Outstanding Youth, and Gold Invention Prize for Geneva International Exposition.