Development of a novel technology for building flexible and wearable integrated systems

A novel technology that enables the fabrication of functional flexible silicon fibers has been developed. The concept involves building a circuit in silicon on insulator material (SOI), laying it out in such a way that its topography is linear and constrained in the direction of the wafer diameter and releasing the circuit by under-cutting the silicon dioxide layer by means of a chemical wet etch process. This leaves the fiber completely free to move and to be extracted onto a support structure. A functional device based on this experimental approach has already been fabricated in the form of a working PN junction. Subsequent active device circuits have been designed and are currently being fabricated. Results from a metal to polysilicon contact chain based on the SOI technology will also be presented in this publication.