Thermo-mechanical characteristics of the stretchable serpentine-patterned microelectrode

Stretchable microelectrode is applied in various fields, such as sensory skins for soft robotics and wearable electronics for biomedical patches, etc. The structural quality of the stretchable microelectrode is a significant factor since it influences the thermo-mechanical characteristics. In order to improve the structural quality of the electrode, a serpentine-patterned configuration with various curvature angles of 60°, 90° and 120° were applied to the film of each electrode. In addition, thermal stress was applied at certain voltages to demonstrate the thermo-mechanical characteristics of the serpentine-patterned microelectrode. The numerical analysis on von Mises stress and thermal stress of the electrode was conducted with a commercial code, COMSOL Multiphysics ver. 5.3a. The results were graphically described by showing stress distributions of each case and the microelectrode having highest thermo-mechanical characteristics was derived.