PCB007 Magazine

PCB-June2015

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22 The PCB Magazine • June 2015 Abstract Breakthroughs in wearable electronics are driving exciting, innovative applications in the health, wellness, safety and entertainment markets. But as the user experience matures, product design is driven as much by fashion and style as it is by form, fit, and function. The human-centric element has created a paradigm for the printed circuit, interconnect designers and fabricators. No longer is the printed circuit a mechanically static, controlled-environment technology. Now it must survive continuous dynamic stresses brought on by flexing, bend - ing, twisting, stretching and dropping in an uncontrolled use environment. This article highlights the current and forward-looking in- terconnect technologies enabling the stream of amazing new smart wearable electronic de- vices connecting the user to their personalized experience. by Joan K. Vrtis, Ph.D. MulTEK TEcHnOlOGIES Enabling Smart Wearable Technology: Flexible, Stretchable Interconnect Background Wearable technology is not new. Anyone who experienced the 1970s remembers the Mood Ring, designed with a thermotropic liq- uid crystal material inside or surrounding the stone of the ring that changed color as the wearer's body temperature changed. The colors inferred the various moods of the user: blue for calm, violet for happy, black for tense, and so on. The wearer had visual feedback with which they could choose to alter his mood. The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web began to revolutionize culture and commerce, initially through instant communi- cation such as electronic mail, instant messag- ing, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), social networking and online shopping. By the late 1990s, physical objects (things) were embedded with electronics, such as software and sensors, and connected to the Internet and thus the In- ternet of Things (IoT) was born. According to Gartner Inc., by the year 2020, there will be approximately 26 billion devices on the Internet of Things [1] . In 2014, the Pew FeAtuRe

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