High Resolution Direct Writing Liquid Metal Patterns for Printed Stretchable Electronics

Abstract

A rapid and inexpensive method to produce stretchable liquid metal electronics with high resolution is introduced. Here, liquid phase gallium-indium (GaIn) alloy is firstly patterned on a pre-stretched elastomer, followed by a natural shrinking process to achieve high resolution stretchable electronic components and interconnects. The idea is inspired from the inflation and deflation of patterned balloons. By a cascaded direct writing and transfer printing step, the printing resolution increases by 20 times on pre-stretched substrates. This rapid prototyping approach paves a new way for microscale printed stretchable electronics.