Combination of Micro-Corrugation Process and Pre-Stretched Method for Highly Stretchable Vertical Wavy Structured Metal Interconnects

Metal interconnects with a vertical wavy structure have been studied to realize high-density and low-electric-resistance stretchable interconnects. This study proposed a new method for fabricating vertical wavy structured metal interconnects that comprises the pre-stretch method and the micro-corrugation process. The pre-stretch method is a conventional method in which a metal film is placed on a pre-stretched substrate, and a vertical wavy structure is formed using the return force of the substrate. The micro-corrugation process is a recent method in which a metal foil is bent vertically and continuously using micro-gears. In the proposed method, the pitch of the vertical wavy structured interconnect fabricated using the micro-corrugation process is significantly narrowed using the restoring force of the pre-stretched substrate, with stretchability improvement of up to 165%, which is significantly higher than that of conventional vertical wavy structured metal interconnects. The electrical resistance of the fabricated interconnect was low (120–160 mΩ) and stable (±2 mΩ or less) until breakage by strain. In addition, the fabricated interconnect exhibits durability of more than 6500 times in a 30% strain cycle test.