The rise of flexible hybrid electrics: insight from IDTechEx
Here, market research firm IDTechEx shares its insight on the evolution of FHE whereby an integrated circuit is combined with multiple other elements such as printed sensors, an antenna, a thin film battery and even thin film PV.
Fundamental to FHE is mounting an integrated circuit (IC), manufactured separately using photolithography, onto a flexible substrate and linking it to printed interconnects. This presents some technological challenges: firstly, silicon dies are rigid, and thus have a completely different form factor and thermal expansion coefficient to the underlying flexible substrate; secondly, alternative semiconductors to silicon, such as metal oxides and organic semiconductors, have much lower mobilities and are difficult to manufacture with sufficiently high yields. These technical challenges and possible solutions, along with other technologies required for FHE circuits, are identified and comprehensively evaluated in the new IDTechEx report: “Flexible Hybrid Electronics 2020-2030: Applications, Challenges, Innovations and Forecasts”.
Packaged ICs: a temporary solution
An interim strategy is to solder a conventional packaged rigid IC to a (usually stiffened) flexible substrate. Such circuits are generally referred to as flexible printed circuits (FPCBs) despite having etched interconnects. Unfortunately, mounting a packaged IC substantially impedes flexibility and removes the possibility of R2R manufacturing.
One solution is to use bare dies, a strategy that has been employed for years in RFID tags. These have a very small (< 1 mm2) IC attached at two points using a conductive adhesive to an antenna. However, this application avoids two of the difficulties associated with adding larger, more capable ICs. Firstly, the ICs are so small that their flexibility is almost irrelevant at any realistic bending radius. Secondly, large attachment pads are viable since only two electronic connections are needed.
However, as the ICs become more capable (for example those that incorporate Bluetooth or memory) and hence larger, difficulties begin to arise. Firstly, their lack of flexibility becomes a problem for FHE applications since they cannot conform to the underling substrate.
Flexible ICs from thinned Si
(top, from American Semiconductor), and a wafer sized
array of natively flexible ICs (bottom, from PragmatIC).
To learn about these innovative technologies more please
refer to the new report from IDTechEx: “Flexible Hybrid
Electronics 2020-2030: Applications, Challenges,
Innovations and Forecasts”.
As such, flexible ICs are beginning to emerge, with the technological approach following two divergent paths. The first is to thin existing Si chips by grinding them to just above the first junction. The fragile thin die, with thicknesses as low as 10 um, is encapsulated in a thin layer of polyimide to add fracture protection and make it easier to handle.
This methodology is in principle applicable to many semiconducting chips, with flexible ICs are already available in small volumes for prototyping purposes. This includes a module with Analog-to-Digital-Converter and UHF RFID that measures 2.2 mm by 2.3 mm by 25 um. The current constraint on flexibility is not the die itself but rather the attachment method, which we identify as a key innovation area.
Natively flexible ICs from metal oxide
The other alternative is natively flexible ICs, at present only available for relatively simple applications such as RFID tags and sensor read-out. While printed ICs have been tried and largely failed, applying the long-established photolithographic techniques to sequentially deposit metal, insulator and metal oxide films on a polyimide substrate has enabled the creation of natively flexible ICs, enabling chips to cost just $0.01.
gates for silicon and FlexLogIC chips, which are natively
flexible and use a metal oxide as the semiconducting layer
(source: PragmatIC). To learn about natively flexible ICs and
how they will be employed in FHE circuits, please refer to the
new report from IDTechEx: “Flexible Hybrid Electronics 2020-
2030: Applications, Challenges, Innovations and Forecasts”.
As can be seen from the chart below, natively flexible ICs are cheaper to produce than Si based ICs if there are less than 100,000 logic gates, with the cost for RFID chips around 0.01$. This cost/ complexity characteristic is ideal for applications such as smart packaging, in which low cost rather than processing capability is the limiting factor.
Flexible IC adoption
In summary, FHE intrinsically requires alternatives to the rigid packaged ICs used in conventional rigid PCBs and FPCBs. The thinned silicon dies, made more robust by polyimide encapsulation, are likely to find acceptance in applications with more complex processing requirements, such as conventional PCB replacement.
applications. These forecasts are based on a granular
analysis of over 20 sub-categories, the benefits offered
by FHE in each category, and price forecasts for
application specific components and assembly methods.
To learn more please refer to IDTechEx’s report
“Flexible Hybrid Electronics 2020-2030: Applications,
Challenges, Innovations and Forecasts”.
Standard bare dies may also be used but require very careful handling to preserve yields. Natively flexible metal-oxide based ICs, currently only capable of HF RFID communication and comparatively straightforward processing of sensor data, will initially be employed in RFID tags and smart packaging applications. Their capabilities, and hence range of suitable applications, is likely to broaden as the technology develops. IDTechEx forecasts the FHE market to exceed $3 billion by 2030 with the inflection point at which rapid uptake occurs likely arriving in 2025.
IDTechEx – www.IDTechEx.com
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