Imec laminates stretchable LED display onto garments
Marking a step forward in wearable electronics, the conformable display is very thin and mechanically stretchable as it relies on imec’s patented stretch technology (flexible meander interconnects) connecting standard silicon LEDs as many small hard islands.
A fine-grain version of the proven meander interconnect technology was developed by the CMST lab at Ghent University and Holst Centre, demonstrating LED displays with a LED pitch of 1mm, with 0.5mm meanders and 0.5mm LED islands.
A close up of the world’s first stretchable and conformable thin-film transistor (TFT) driven LED display laminated into textiles developed by Holst Centre, imec and CSMT.
The current limiting factor for shrinking the pitch further is the size of available LEDs, admitted Hanne Degans, talking on behalf of imec, adding "stretchability is compromised by a lower LED pitch and larger LED islands. Switching to smaller, bare-die LEDs extends the usability of the meander technology".
The LED displays are fabricated on a polyimide substrate and encapsulated in rubber, allowing the displays to be laminated in to textiles that can be washed. Importantly, the technology uses fabrication steps that are known to the manufacturing industry, enabling rapid industrialization.
So, is imec working on displacing these silicon LEDs with fully printed OLED islands or couldn’t it withstand the heat from the lamination process? We asked.
"The integration of OLEDs with textiles and stretchable displays based on OLED technology are being pursued as parallel paths at Holst Centre and imec. The integration of OLED devices in textiles is not limited by the heat from the lamination process", answered Degans.
Visit imec at www.imec.be
Visit TNO at www.tno.nl
Visit the Host Centre at www.holstcentre.com
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