From Playroom to Lab: Tough Stretchable Electronics Analyzed with a Tabletop Tensile Tester Made from Toy‐Bricks

Toy bricks are an ideal platform for the cost‐effective rapid prototyping of a tabletop tensile tester with measurement accuracy on par with expensive, commercially available laboratory equipment. Here, a tester is presented that is not only a versatile demonstration device in mechanics, electronics, and physics education and an eye‐catcher on exhibitions, but also a powerful tool for stretchable electronics research. Following the “open‐source movement” the build‐up of the tester is described and all the details for easy reproduction are disclosed. A a new design of highly conformable all‐elastomer based graded rigid island printed circuit boards is developed. Tough bonded to this elastomer substrate are imperceptible electronic foils bearing conductors and off‐the‐shelf microelectronics, paving the way for next generation smart electronic appliances. Toy bricks are freed from the playroom to form the basis of a tensile tester with a measurement accuracy on par with standard laboratory equipment. The toy brick tensile tester is used to characterize a new design of all‐elastomer graded rigid island structures with tough bonds for hybrid stretchable electronic circuit boards.