A Laminating Strategy to Manyfold Enhance the Elastic Stretchability of Stretchable Electronics

Achieving high elastic stretchability remains a central focus and persistent challenge in stretchable electronics. Widely adopted fabrication techniques like coating and photolithography produce thin-ribbon metallic structures that facilitate stretchability through various strategies. Nevertheless, their ultra-thin nature causes out-of-plane buckling and stress concentration, limiting elastic stretchability, especially on substrates with elastic moduli in the megapascal range, greatly restricting practical use. Here, we propose a laminating strategy that laminates a thick-polymer layer onto the thin-ribbon metallic structure. Using serpentine structures on soft and hard substrates as representative cases, this approach increases elastic stretchability by 3.5-fold and 2.3-fold. The enhancement results from transforming the deformation mode from out-of-plane buckling to in-plane bending, effectively reducing stress concentration and generating significant angles for straight segments to endure larger stretching. As a device-level example, this strategy enables stretchable sensors to measure large strains in smart tires with hard substrates and shows broad potential in thin-ribbon electronics.