Variable Thickness Substrate for Flexible Electronics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Flexible electronic products and displays face instability and cracking due to elastic fatigue when elongated, as existing solutions rely on material substitution methods that fail to maintain stable characteristics over time.
Innovation Solution
A substrate board design featuring a rigid area thicker than a flexible area, allowing the flexible area to deform significantly while the rigid area maintains minimal deformation, achieved by varying thickness within the same material, reducing stress influence and maintaining device and display area characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a flexible material is used to achieve flexibility, then the substrate can be bent, but the electronic device cracks due to elastic fatigue after elongation for a long time
Solution Approach 1:
The substrate is divided into a rigid area and a flexible area, with the rigid area providing structural support for electronic components and the flexible area allowing bending. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by localizing flexibility to non-component areas while maintaining stability in component areas.
Solution Approach 2:
Different areas of the substrate have different mechanical properties: the rigid area has high stiffness to prevent deformation under components, while the flexible area has low stiffness to enable bending. This local differentiation allows the substrate to simultaneously achieve flexibility and reliability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If different materials are combined to create rigid and flexible areas, then flexibility is achieved, but the fabrication process becomes complex due to alignment difficulties
Solution Approach 1:
The substrate uses a single material throughout, differentiated only by thickness. This homogeneous material approach eliminates alignment issues between different materials while achieving the desired rigid and flexible areas through controlled thickness variations in the molding process.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of changing materials, the invention changes the thickness parameter of the same material to create different mechanical properties. The rigid area has greater thickness while the flexible area has lesser thickness, simplifying fabrication by using a single material system with variable geometry.
3Reliability
If material substitution is used to reduce elastic fatigue, then characteristic shifting is slowed, but the characteristics still change slowly over time and cannot be stable
Solution Approach 1:
Electronic components are placed only in the rigid area where the substrate provides stable mechanical support, preventing elastic fatigue and characteristic drift. The flexible area is kept free of components, allowing bending without compromising component stability. This spatial segmentation resolves the contradiction between flexibility and characteristic stability.
Data Source
AI summary
A fabricating method of a substrate board is provided. The substrate board includes a substrate having rigid areas and flexible areas, and at least an electronic component disposed on the substrate, wherein each of the rigid areas is thicker than the flexible areas. A patterned high-extensive material may be additionally disposed on the substrate to improve reliability thereof. The rigid areas and the flexible areas may be formed by molds or cutters. By using an above structure, the electronic component is less affected when the substrate is under stress, so that good characteristics are maintained.