Manufacturing and Integration Strategies for Flexible Electronics Across Form Factors

Overview

Electronics permeate every aspect of our daily life, yet the accelerating demand for wearable, soft robotic, and human-interactive systems reveals a growing mismatch between the rigid nature of traditional electronics and the conformable, adaptive technologies our world increasingly requires. Bridging this gap calls for new ways to fabricate electronics on unconventional substrates and form factors. This seminar presents manufacturing and integration strategies developed to address this challenge. First, an additive, laser-enabled process is introduced for fabricating flexible, double-sided printed electronics leveraging laser-induced graphene (LIG) as a seed layer for selective copper electrodeposition (E-LIG). This technique enables precise circuit patterning down to 50 µm and reliable via formation in a single streamlined process, supports transfer onto various substrates for large-area electronics up to 100 cm², and allows functional LIG sensors and actuators to be directly interfaced with control circuits on a single substrate. E-LIG further exhibits repairability for on-demand restoration of damaged circuits, offering a scalable, cost-effective solution for multifunctional printed electronics. The seminar then extends these integration strategies to the fiber form factor through FiberCircuits, a miniaturization framework for manufacturing high-density circuits thin enough for full encapsulation within fibers, embedding millimeter-scale microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators that can be woven and embroidered into interactive textiles. Together, these approaches establish accessible manufacturing routes toward multifunctional electronics that conform seamlessly across scales, from flexible substrates to textile-integrated systems.