LEGO-like assembly of peelable, deformable components for integrated devices

The development of various technologies has led to the advent of a variety of deformable devices. Despite significant technological advancement in this area, it is still challenging to integrate different devices due to limitations such as substrate issues and differences among growth and deposition conditions. Creating an interconnection between two different devices currently requires the use of metallic wires/lines to build electrical connections. Here, we demonstrate a LEGO-like assembly of the free-standing film of individually operable components encapsulated in a polymer overcoat layer, leading to the production of an integrated architecture without additional electrical connections. The free-standing components are produced by the peeling-off process. The sticky nature of the polymer layer enables the construction of supercapacitor arrays and simple RLC circuits by interlocking the individual components. We expect that this approach will enable the fabrication of a variety of custom-built devices using a LEGO-like assembly method. NPG Asia Materials (2013) 5, e66; doi:10.1038/am.2013.51; published online 11 October 2013