Advances in FHE Integration

using FleXform-ADC
2016FLEX Conference
March 03, 2015
 What are Flexible Hybrid Electronics?

Printed Electronics Flexible FleX-ICs

Low Cost, R2R, Large High Performance, High Density
Format Flexible Hybrid System
Combination of flexible printed materials and
flexible silicon-based ICs to create a new class
of flexible electronics.

American Semiconductor
Molex flexible substrate FleX-ICs
Sensor Signal Processing
Printed Electronics Data Processing
Sensors Data Storage
Interconnects Communications
Substrates
Displays Low Cost, High Performance
Compatible with Printed Electronics
Low Cost, Large Format Foundry CMOS + FleX Processing
Roll-To-Roll, Screen, Inkjet Print,

2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved. 2

 FleXform-ADC Development Kit
FleXform-ADC Kits provide:
SOTA FHE System
Supports printed sensor development
User printable FHE with on-board FleX-ADC
Integration Board and Software
Enables printed device demonstrations
Fully supported by ASI flexible technology
integration team for design and manufacturing This work sponsored in part by
Air Force Research Laboratory

FleXform-ADC Kit contents:

Quick Start Guide
FleXform-ADC printed circuit board (PCB)
Two button cell batteries
One 8.5 X 5.5 flexible circuit board sheet with two instances of the
FleXform-ADC flexible circuit board (FCB)
Additional documentation, videos and software development tools
are available for download
Kit Availability:
Limited initial release 2/23/15
Now accepting pre-orders for March deliveries
2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved. 3
 FHE Capability Demonstration

Brewer Science/American Semiconductor collaboration

FleXform-ADC Dev Kit (FleX ADC IC)
Temperature and humidity sensors (printed SWCNT)

Humidity Testing

Temperature Testing

2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved. 4

 Flexible ICs

FleX-ICs required to achieve a fully flexible system

Traditional packaged parts and bare die can be surface
mounted to flexible substrates
Create rigid islands in flex substrates and/or
Rigid parts delaminate with even gentle curvature

~300um ~30um
Test Setup:
Vdd = 2.5V
FleX OPAMP
Vss = 0V
Ibias = 10uA
In-pos = 1kHz square wave (YELLOW trace on
oscilloscope)
SoP In-neg = connected to Out, voltage follower configuration
Bare Die Flex Op-Amp functions at (BLUE trace on scope)
Package Die 5mm radius of curvature! Out= connected to In-neg, voltage follower configuration
Die (BLUE trace on scope)
2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved. 5
 Attach and Interconnect

SOTA (In-Production) Flip Chip (fcst 2016)

FleX-ADC/OPAMP 200um/300um (ADC/OpAmp)
200um/300um Pad Pitch 160um/260um (MCU)
Pad up All FleX ICs
Silver Epoxy Plated Pads
Manual Assembly Today MRL 8
ACA/ACI (tbd)
5mm RoC Manual Assembly

2014 MRL 4

Flip Chip/ACI (2014) Flip Chip (fcst 2017)

FleX-MCU All FleX ICs
160um/260um Pad Pitch <260um pitch
AS_MEC1001.fxd ACA/ACI (tbd)
AS_MEC4001.fcb Fully Automated
ACA manual assembly 2014 MRL 3
This work has been partially
funded by NBMC contract
FA8650-13-2-7311
2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Interconnect Direct Write

2016 Engineers Showing Off

Today MRL 8

2012 First Functional Print

2014 MRL 4

2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved. 7

 Encapsulation
FAIL
Reliability Requirements Beta 2015
RoC 40mm
Scratch protection
Environmental protection

Mechanical Requirements
Beta Units
Conformal
600um thickness
Thin
Rcurve limit 40mm Overlay
Flexible compare

Gen 1 2016
80% thinner Gen 1 Units RoC <5mm
120um thickness
~90% more flexible
Rcurve limit <5mm
PASS

2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved. 8

 FleXform-ADC Platform
FHE Reliability Testing
Goals:
1. Dynamic Radius of Curvature (RCurve) Testing
2. Dynamic Complex Bend (Torsion) Testing

Test Coupon:
Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) system with FleX-OpAmp on a PET substrate
127um (5mil) thick PET substrate with traces screen printed using a silver nanoparticle ink
FleX-OpAmp general purpose operational amplifier configured as a voltage follower
UV curable, non-conductive adhesives used for die attach and overcoat
Thermal cure silver flake conductive adhesive used for interconnect

150mm

2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved. 9

 FleXform-ADC Platform
Radius of Curvature Testing
Robotics system used to dynamically flex
the FHE system around a 15mm radius
mandrel
FHE system tested electrically throughout
the curvature cycles

Sample 1 10K cycles convex followed by

13.6K cycles concave without failure

Sample 2 11K cycles concave followed

by 15.8K cycles convex before first failure
Failure due to crack in the silver flake
conductive adhesive used for interconnect
on the VDD line
Sample would still function if stress applied
to bridge the crack

2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved. 10

 FleXform-ADC Platform
Axial Torsion Testing
Robotics system used to rotate the sample 60
or 90 degrees
FHE system tested electrically throughout the
application of rotational stresses

Sample 3 10K cycles of 60 degrees followed

by 92K cycles of 90 degrees before failure
Failure mode indicates a crack in the silver flake
conductive adhesive

2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved. 11

 Flexible ICs

FleXform-ADC Development Kit (AS_DEVA) Immediate availability

FleXform-MCU Development Kit (AS_DEVB) Available Q2 2016
FleX-OPA1 Dual General Purpose Opamps (AS_OPA1) Immediate availability
FleX-OPA2 Quad General Purpose Opamps (AS_OPA2) Available Q3 2016
FleX-OPA3 Quad High Performance Opamps (AS_OPA3) Available Q4 2016
FleX-OPA4 Quad Output Transconductance Amps (AS_OPA4) Available Q4 2016
FleX-ADC1 8-channels, 8-bits (AS_ADC1) Immediate availability
FleX-ADC2 ADC with 3 Configurable Opamps (AS_ADC2) Available Q4 2016
FleX-MCU1 8-bit PIC Microcontroller (AS_MCU1) Available Q2 2016
FleX-MCU2 Microcontroller with ADC (AS_MCU2) Available Q4 2016

FHE Sensor Reference Design Available Q2 2016

2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All rights reserved.

Thank you for attending

Thank You
Special thanks to :
Air Force Research Lab
Brewer Science
Molex
Boise State University

American Semiconductor, Inc.

2016 American Semiconductor, Inc. All 6987 W. Targee St.
rights reserved. American Semiconductor is a
registered trademark of American Boise, ID 83709
Semiconductor, Inc. FleXform, FleXform-ADC, Tel: 208.336.2773
FleX, Silicon-on-Polymer, FleX-ADC, FleX-
MCU and FleX-IC are trademarks of American
Fax: 208.336.2752
Semiconductor, Inc. www.americansemi.com