Publication: 3d deformable circuit board for soft robotics
Date
2021-07-01
Authors
Leong, Jun Xian
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Abstract
Nowadays, the electronic components in the intelligent devices are getting more compact, making the device to be tiny but with many functions. However, there are still many electronic components which are rigid and cannot be deformable. In recent years, many researches have been done to develop a deformable or stretchable printed circuit board (SPCB). However, most of the SPCB exist as a single layer board. Besides, there is no conventional control circuit board that are suitable for soft robotics application. Thus, a 3D deformable control circuit board was proposed and built based on the schematic design of Arduino Uno board. In this project, an Arduino Uno R3 board was selected and transformed into a soft deformable circuit board. The electronic components on Arduino Uno board were desoldered and removed. Then, the schematic design of the Arduino Uno board was modified to reduce the complexity of the control circuit. The circuit layout of the board was designed based on the concept of kirigami structure. The circuit was printed onto the flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) and divided into many islands. These FPCB islands were arranged in kirigami structure and connected by meander-shaped metal tracks. Next, the whole circuit were encapsulated by silicone rubber. After the fabrication was done, mechanical tests for deformable board were carried out to test its stretchability and its robustness. The elongation limit of fabricated 3D deformable control circuit board was 35.90%, whereas the maximum twisted angle on deformable board was 95°. The compression
force that can be withstood by the deformable board was 10.05N. The performance of deformable board was also compared with a rigid Arduino Uno board, and the results showed that the deformable board has higher stretchability and deformability than a rigid Arduino Uno board. Therefore, a 3D deformable control circuit board which was compatible for soft robotics applications was successfully fabricated. The comparison between deformable board and rigid board had also proven that deformable board was unique and more suitable to be used in soft robotics application. Besides, the strength and weakness of deformable board was listed and discussed. Suggestions were also given to improve the performance of 3D deformable circuit board in the future.