Advanced Materials for Printed Flexible Electronics

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to printed flexible electronics and their applications, including the basics of modern printing technologies, printable inks, performance characterization, device design, modeling, and fabrication processes. A wide range of materials used for printed flexible electronics are also covered in depth. Bridging the gap between the creation of structure and function, printed flexible electronics have been explored for manufacturing of flexible, stretchable, wearable, and conformal electronics device with conventional, 3D, and hybrid printing technologies. Advanced materials such as polymers, ceramics, nanoparticles, 2D materials, and nanocomposites have enabled a wide variety of applications, such as transparent conductive films, thin film transistors, printable solar cells, flexible energy harvesting and storage devices, electroluminescent devices, and wearable sensors. This book provides students, researchers and engineers with the information to understand the current status and future trends in printed flexible electronics, and acquire skills for selecting and using materials and additive manufacturing processes in the design of printed flexible electronics.

Colin Tong is a materials expert with considerable professional experience in the past two decades. His research & development activities and industrial practices cover a broad range of different fields with a special focus on materials testing and characterization, component design and processing of advanced composite materials, metallurgy, thermal management of electronic packaging, electromagnetic interference shielding, integrated optical waveguides, functional metamaterials and metadevices, energy materials, as well as flexible and printed electronics. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering, and a Master’s as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Materials and Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Tong has published five books, over 30 peer-reviewed papers, and he holds 9 patents. He is a senior member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). He received the Henry Marion Howe Medal from ASM International for his contribution to research and development on advanced aluminum composite materials in 1999.