Universal assembly of liquid metal particles in polymers enables elastic printed circuit board

Abstract

An elastic printed circuit board (E-PCB) is a conductive framework used for the facile assembly of system-level stretchable electronics. E-PCBs require elastic conductors that have high conductivity, high stretchability, tough adhesion to various components, and imperceptible resistance changes even under large strain. We present a liquid metal particle network (LMPNet) assembled by applying an acoustic field to a solid-state insulating liquid metal particle composite as the elastic conductor. The LMPNet conductor satisfies all the aforementioned requirements and enables the fabrication of a multilayered high-density E-PCB, in which numerous electronic components are intimately integrated to create highly stretchable skin electronics. Furthermore, we could generate the LMPNet in various polymer matrices, including hydrogels, self-healing elastomers, and photoresists, thus showing their potential for use in soft electronics.