Lithographically patterned stretchable metallic microwiring on electrospun nanofiber mats

Abstract

Stretchable and flexible electronic applications require mechanically suitable electrical wiring. This article presents, for the first time, the microfabrication of photolithographically patterned microwiring on an electrospun nanofiber mat. The use of a photoresist-based technology allows for better than 10 μm pattern resolution on a good quality nanofiber mat, providing an order of magnitude smaller feature sizes than what has been published before. We demonstrate metallic wiring patterned from a 75 nm thick coating on top of the nanofiber mat. A silicone elastomer was incorporated to serve as a matrix material and form a composite substrate and an encapsulation layer on top of the microwiring. We demonstrate clean and anisotropic dry etching of the elastomer to open electrode sites that can be smaller than 10 μm in size. We speculate that these structures will be mechanically robust while being soft at the same time and provide the properties necessary for potential use in stretchable and flexible electronics.