Panasonic Develops Resin Film For Stretchable Electronics
Panasonic has developed a stretchable insulating resin film, that could be used in future strechable and bendable electronic devices.
The resin is capable of stretching to 2.5 times its original length and then return to the original form.
Panasonic also developed a transparent electrode and a conductive paste using this film material.
This insulating film material stretches and returns to its original shape, a feature that is hard to find in conventional flexible materials. It adapts to desired manners of folding and to varying free-form surfaces, substantially reducing existing design constraints. For example, it enables the construction of soft and stretchable electronic devices that are adaptable to a variety of forms, such as of clothing and the body.
The stretchable resin film offers the following features developed on the basis of the Company's proprietary stretchable resin technology.
The material is capable of relaxing internal stresses arising from stretch, returning to its original shape, and withstanding repeated use. The percentage of stress relaxation is 60%, and its recovery rate is 98% or more, according to stress tests conducted by Panasonic.
Usually, copper or other metal wiring would break when its base material stretches or contracts. Due to this problem, it is not easy to use metal wiring to form complex circuits. Furthermore, metal fatigue resulting from deformation makes it difficult to achieve metal wiring that withstands repeated stretch. Panasonic has developed a technology to combine a stretchable resin as a binder with a silver filler. The result is conductive paste that retains a conductive path, hence conductivity, even after stretch and restore.