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Panasonic Develops Stretchable Resin Film for Stretchable Electronics
December 29, 2015 | Panasonic CorporationEstimated reading time: 5 minutes
1. The Company's original resin design technology to produce a stretchable insulating material from a thermosetting resin
Thermosetting resin are materials in wide and general use. Because they are subject to a trade-off between softness and heat resistance, it is a challenge to render them soft while retaining their heat resistance. Panasonic has developed a unique resin design technology to allow the material to have both soft and rigid components. This method differs from the conventional method of adding an elastomer[7]. This technology uses a three-dimensional cross-linked structure of thermosetting resin to relax stresses arising from stretch and restore. While ensuring compatibility between elasticity and stress relaxation, we have developed an insulating material, which, although made of a thermosetting resin, stretches and returns to its original shape to enable repeated use.
2. Design technology to produce a stretchable base material for stretchable transparent electrodes
ITO[8] is in wide use as transparent electrodes. Although it withstands bending to some extent, when subjected to folding or stretch, it easily develops cracks, thereby failing to retain its conductivity. To overcome this drawback, it is necessary to provide crack-free flexibility and ensure a conductive path for retaining the material's conductivity even under stretch or deformation conditions. Panasonic has developed a technology designed to form a thin transparent conductive layer comprising conductive carbon nanotubes of an exceptionally high aspect ratio on a base material of a stretchable resin film produced with the optimal materials design for stretch and restore. Employing carbon nanotubes to form a conductive path, thereby providing compatibility between stretchability and conductivity, we have created a stretchable transparent electrode material that retains conductivity even after deformation.
3. Technology to combine a stretchable polymer and a conductive filler for the production of stretchable conductive paste
Usually, copper or other metal wiring would break when its base material stretches or contracts. Due to this problem, it is not easy to use metal wiring to form complex circuits. Furthermore, metal fatigue resulting from deformation makes it difficult to achieve metal wiring that withstands repeated stretch. Panasonic has developed a technology to combine a stretchable resin as a binder with a silver filler. The result is conductive paste that retains a conductive path, hence conductivity, even after stretch and restore.
About Panasonic
Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development of diverse electronics technologies and solutions for customers in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, enterprise solutions, and device industries. Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded globally and now operates 468 subsidiaries and 94 associated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.715 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2015. Committed to pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for its customers.
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