Interaction of Surface Preparation and Cure Parameters on the Interface Reliability of Flexible Encapsulation in Flexible Hybrid Electronics Applications

Abstract

Flexible devices, which are seen as the future of the electronics industry, require encapsulation for protection while meeting the flexibility requirements of end applications. Flexible electronics have lower production costs and are thinner, lighter, and nonbreakable, resulting in a new form of application for electronic devices. One such use is the employment of electronic gadgets in the daily surroundings to monitor one's vitals. These devices are frequently exposed to dust, perspiration, and moisture. They are frequently subjected to bending and folding action, which causes stresses to accumulate in those devices. These stressors and the hostile environment are frequently minimized by using potting encapsulants to increase durability. In our investigation, we picked six distinct encapsulant formulations and exposed them to varied cure profiles to measure the adhesive bond strength of the encapsulants. The benchmark peel strength was constructed using a Finite element model of the AU-biometric band. The encapsulants peel strength was used to determine which material performed best under experimental conditions. This study presents a sample geometry comprising six different encapsulants and two distinct substrates, polyimide and PET, which were evaluated at four different cure schedules and cleaned using two different cleaning procedures. The encapsulants are ranked against one another to determine their potential future usage in flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) devices.