Printed Electronic Processes for Flexible Hybrid Circuits and Antennas

Next generation electronics will be painted onto plastic substrates providing both functionality and physical flexibility. The corresponding manufacturing process will lead to significantly reduced cost; however the performance of the resulting circuits will not match many existing high-performance electronic circuits fabricated with traditional technology today. High performance is not always necessary, but when required, Printed Electronics may still be a viable solution. The future of Printed Electronics is bright and will eventually include sophisticated function, but until that time, a Printed Hybrid option will simultaneously provide the cost savings of printing and the high performance of silicon and printed circuit boards. An interim contribution is to use state-of-the-art silicon devices and print the supporting conductive patterns and passives on substrates for flexible systems integration. This paper describes and demonstrates a hybrid circuit technology, which can manufacture circuits more easily adapted to complex shapes and diverse sizes. Additionally, a number of printed components and devices are reviewed and a demonstration of two circuits is provided: an RF antenna and the supporting substrate design of a Field Programmable Gate Array.