Simultaneous Digital Communication and Deformation Sensing over a Single Stretchable Interconnect

Abstract

Stretchable hybrid electronics integrate rigid solid-state electronics with stretchable materials and structures to achieve both high deformability and stable electronic performance. However, most existing systems treat stretchability only as a mechanical attribute without exploiting device deformation to encode its own mechanical state. This problem arises from adapting conventional rigid circuit architectures to stretchable substrates, affording a loss in compatibility with the sensors required for strain measurement. This study addresses this issue by proposing a communication-integrated deformation sensing architecture for stretchable hybrid devices. In the proposed approach, standard universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter digital signals transmitted between rigid nodes are amplitude-modulated by strain-induced resistance changes in stretchable liquid metal interconnects. By reading both amplitude changes and digital patterns, the system enables simultaneous digital communication and self-deformation sensing without requiring additional stretchable sensing elements. The architecture is demonstrated in a multi-node system and applied to wearable sensing and self-deformation mapping devices. By extending the integration of rigid circuits and soft elements from the hardware level to the system level, this study provides a novel design paradigm for stretchable electronic systems that inherently utilize their own deformation as functional information.