Flexible electronics gets a boost

Terepac Corporation and IMEC are collaborating on packaging technologies for flexible electronics.

The initial driver is a next-generation wireless ECG system, developed in the Human++ Program at Holst Centre, Eindhoven.

As electronic systems will become ubiquitous, the demand for innovative packaging technologies increases. For many applications, like on-the-body devices, thin and flexible form factors greatly improve the comfort of the wearer.

To allow large-scale manufacturing and market penetration, low-cost yet high-value solutions are key.

Traditional electronics packaging and assembly with rigid circuit boards and pick-and-place machines are unable to cope with these demands.

The technology developed by Terepac holds great promise to give an answer to these challenges. In its photochemical printing process, thinned silicon dies and passive components can be placed on flexible substrates at speeds of more than one chip per second and with accuracies down to a few microns.

The wireless ECG patch that is being developed in IMEC's Human++ program at Holst Centre, an open-innovation initiative by IMEC and TNO, will be used as a test vehicle for further development of Terepac's technology.

For IMEC it is an opportunity to go from a lab-scale assembly on polyimide carrier to a more production-ready version of its wireless sensor nodes. First results are expected by mid 2010.