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Updated: Nov 17, 2025

Planar and Three-Dimensional Printing of Conductive Inks
Published on: December 9, 2011
Highly stretchable multilayer electronic circuits using biphasic gallium-indium
Shanliangzi Liu1,2, Dylan S Shah1, Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio3
1School of Engineering and Applied Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Abstract:
Stretchable electronic circuits are critical for soft robots, wearable technologies and biomedical applications. Development of sophisticated stretchable circuits requires new materials with stable conductivity over large strains, and low-resistance interfaces between soft and conventional (rigid) electronic components. To address this need, we introduce biphasic Ga-In, a printable conductor with high conductivity (2.06 × 106 S m-1), extreme stretchability (>1,000%), negligible resistance change when strained, cyclic stability (consistent performance over 1,500 cycles) and a reliable interface with rigid electronics. We employ a scalable transfer-printing process to create various stretchable circuit board assemblies that maintain their performance when stretched, including a multilayer light-emitting diode display, an amplifier circuit and a signal conditioning board for wearable sensing applications. The compatibility of biphasic Ga-In with scalable manufacturing methods, robust interfaces with off-the-shelf electronic components and electrical/mechanical cyclic stability enable direct conversion of established circuit board assemblies to soft and stretchable forms.
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