SUBLIME

SUBLIME is a FWO-SBO project that aims to develop soft, stretchable liquid metal electronics by embedding liquid metal conductors in elastic encapsulants. By studying the interactions between liquid metal, electronic component metals, and encapsulation materials, the project aims to reduce degradation and improve device reliability for wearable electronics, smart textiles, and soft robotics.

SUBLIME: Stretchable & UBiquitous LIquid Metal Electronics

Project details 

Highly integrated sensor/electronics systems could significantly benefit society – potentially for applications in healthcare, wearables and soft and human augmentation robotics – and can be achieved via the pathway of liquid metal based stretchable electronics. In this project the local interaction of the different materials; i.e. liquid metal, metals from electronic components and stretchable encapsulant, is investigated for mitigating the degradation of the envisaged soft and stretchable liquid metal devices for their application in wearables, smart textiles and soft robotics.

The interaction between the liquid metal and the solid metal is investigated for metal dissolution, metals’ (inter)diffusion, impurity reactions and alloying, and possible coating solutions to prevent degradation are researched. Also the degradation of the stretchable encapsulant is investigated and its influence on the behaviour of the liquid metal is studied. Several strategies to deposit the different materials to achieve liquid metal devices, taking into account the investigated solutions to prevent degradation, are investigated and based on post-mortem and in-situ reliability studies a procedure for the reliability testing of Liquid Metal Stretchable Electronics is proposed.

All these findings are tested in three specific application cases; i.e. a sensorized interface for a wearable device, a light-integrated wire for smart textile integration and a soft robotic gripper. Only the combined fundamental scientific knowledge on liquid metal-solid metal interactions, stretchable encapsulation, processing techniques and reliability testing will lead to applications with long lifetimes that have their impact on the companies in the full value chain of this project and which will lead to a transition from research towards industrial uptake.