ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the mechanical strategies employed in stretchable electronics as well as their design concepts, theory, simulation, and applications, and provides some perspectives on the remaining challenges and opportunities in the future of stretchable electronics. It introduces the approaches with structural layouts via a mechanical analysis. With proper mechanical design, existing stretchable electronics can be implemented for epidermal health/wellness monitors, flexible surgical instruments, tunable antennas, and eyeballlike digital cameras. The requirements of three-dimensional (3D) functional structures have inspired the development of 3D mesostructures based on origami and kirigami design. Ribbons with wave designs can be stretched in the direction of the waves. However, stretchable electronics may need to deform along more than one direction. The island-bridge design was developed to increase the stretchability of electronics. J. Song et al. established a mechanical model to explain the high stretchability of the island-bridge design with straight interconnects.
