Origami electronic membranes as highly shape-morphable mechanical and environmental sensing systems

Abstract

This work introduces a concept of highly shape-morphable macro-scale origami electronic membranes based on the design and fabrication of flexible electronics and engineering origami. The origami electronic membranes can change shapes, provide multi-modal mechanical and environmental sensing capabilities in room and harsh temperatures, and/or switch functions by mechanical shape reconfiguration. This paper presents the materials, design, and fabrication methods for realizing six origami electronic membranes capable of reconfiguring planar or three-dimensional shapes based on the modified flasher, Kresling, Miura-ori, circular, letter, and Tachi-Miura origami patterns. They can be folded into small, stowed geometries and controllably deployed into larger areas or volumes to cover expanded spaces for spatial sensing, enabling significant shape adaptability for flexible electronics beyond simple stretching or bending. The mechanical and environmental sensing modalities include measuring motions, mechanical strains, temperatures, UV light, and humidity. The results reported here may expand the use of flexible electronics to applications that especially require aggressive shape transitions between a small, folded geometry and a large surface or volume such as deployable sensing systems for space explorations and accessing and monitoring highly confined locations.