AUTOFLEX - Automated Integration of Flexible Electronics

在过去的四十年里，电子产品的日益普及对人们的日常生活产生了深远的影响。移动电话可能是最明显的例子，因为它允许某人不断地连接到一系列电子资源。这一趋势还在继续，越来越多的日常用品正在电子化。挑战在于如何在对成本影响最小的情况下将电子功能添加到物体上，这正在被称为“大面积电子学”的领域解决，该领域研究如何在大面积的各种表面（如玻璃或塑料）上制造电子设备。虽然大型电子工业在历史上一直由显示器主导，但现在它正在向其他领域多样化，包括印刷逻辑，这将允许电子功能添加到日常物品中[Nathan， A.等人，Proc. IEEE, 100,1486(2012)]。大面积电子显示行业已经发现，为了经济生产，能够对产品进行在线测试（和后续维修）是绝对必要的。Hendricks，“平板显示器的检测和测试”，Proc.SPIE, 2174, 107-115(1994)]。这是由于显示器制造的区域非常大，并且统计上每单位面积上存在重大缺陷的可能性。显示器背板的高价值意味着测试和维修在经济上是必不可少的。在下一代大面积印刷逻辑电子产品中，也需要类似的方法。尽管在印刷逻辑制造中使用低成本材料和工艺意味着将单个系统集成到标签、新奇产品、玩具和游戏以及类似应用中的成本比显示器低几个数量级，但假设测试成本可以足够低，仍然存在测试的经济驱动因素。然而，虽然显示器的测试可以使用使用探针卡和多个通信通道的既定技术经济地实现，但对于生产速度可能超过每小时100万个电路的印刷逻辑来说，这将是不正确的。因此，为了能够在如此高的速率下进行经济的测试，需要一个阶梯变化，这是本项目研究的重点。

The increasing ubiquity of electronics has had a profound influence upon everyday life over the last forty years. The mobiletelephone is perhaps the most obvious example of this, as it allows someone to be constantly connected to a range ofelectronic resources. This trend is continuing, and more and more everyday objects are becoming electronically enabled.The challenge is to be able to add electronic functionality to objects with minimal impact upon cost, and this is beingaddressed by the field known as 'large-area electronics' which looks at how electronic devices can be fabricated on adiversity of surfaces (such as glass or plastics) over large areas. Although the large-area electronics industry hashistorically been dominated by displays, it is now diversifying to other areas including printed logic, and it is this that willallow electronic functionality to be added to everyday objects [Nathan, A., et al., Proc. IEEE, 100, 1486 (2012)].The large-area electronic display industry has found it absolutely essential to be able to perform in-line testing (andsubsequent repair) of products for economic production [D. Hendricks, 'Inspection and test of flat panel displays', Proc.SPIE, 2174, 107-115 (1994)]. This is a consequence of the very large areas over which display manufacture takes place,and the statistical likelihood of a significant defect being present per unit area. The high value of the display backplanemeans that testing and repair is economically essential.A similar approach will be necessary in the next generation of large-area printed logic electronics. Although the use of lowcost materials and processes in the manufacture of printed logic means that the cost of an individual system for integrationinto labels, novelty products, toys and games and similar applications is orders of magnitude lower than the display, thereis still an economic driver for testing, assuming that the cost of the test can be made to be sufficiently low. However,whereas the testing of a display can be achieved economically using established techniques that employ probe cards andmultiple communication channels, this will not be true for printed logic where production speeds could be in excess of 1million circuits per hour. Therefore, a step-change is required to be able to perform economical testing at such high rates,and this is the focus of the research in this project.