A stretchable knitted interconnect for three-dimensional curvilinear surfaces

摘要

This paper describes a novel method for fabricating stretchable electric interconnects on deformable curvilinear bodies.nAn interlaced interconnect integrated with a metal conductor and an elastic substrate has been proposed by using ansuper fine insulated metal conductor wire co-knitted into an elastic knitted fabric. Its electro-mechanical property wasninvestigated by using a material tester with ball-punch attachment. The electrical conductivity of the elastic interconnectnremains constant up to an average in-plan strain of 100%. The interlaced interconnect is able to survive in repeatednthree-dimensional deformation cycles where the membrane deformation of the substrate is the dominating mode ofndeformation. The number of cycles before failure can reach over 5000 at an average in-plane strain of 46%. The fatiguenphenomenon is clearly related to the wire diameter and mechanical abrasion due to high levels of compression andnfriction between the metal wire and the ball.