Textile-fiber-array-embedded, stretchable alternating-current electroluminescent device: Utilization of in-plane electric field

Abstract

To date, although there has been significant progress in the development of new techniques for emerging EL devices, enabling soft robots, actuators, flexible/stretchable/wearable electronics, and self-healable devices, most of these reported devices have coplanar structures, which require planar electrodes with high transmittance and mechanically durable characteristics as well as stable electrical conductivity, even in the deformed state. Here, we present a textile-fiber-array–embedded flexible composite system capable of producing multiluminescence (electroluminescence (EL) and mechanoluminescence (ML)) on the application of electromechanical stimulus [1]. In our work, we embed a conducting fiber array into a mixture of PDMS and ZnS EL phosphors with parallel orientation, to act as electrodes. Because the EL is generated by the in-plane field, there is no requirement for the light to be transmitted to the electrode, thereby eliminating the requirement of high transmittance. We also found radially distributed electric/optical fields arising from the unique fiber-array configuration, which are beneficial for applications as a uniform plane light source. Furthermore, a patterned device was realized by controlling the embedding depths of fibers, utilizing the vertical and in-plane electric fields simultaneously. We believe that these results can provide a basis for the development of emerging soft display systems. [1] S. Song, B. Song, C. –H. Cho, S. K. Lim, S. M. Jeong, Submitted