Spiderweb-Based Interconnects for Smart Textile Applications

Spiderwebs, or orbwebs, are naturally occurring structures that exhibit remarkable mechanical resilience and optimization. They are capable of withstanding multidirectional forces, even if one or more spiral or even radial lines are detached. Spiderweb (or fractal web) design holds significant interest in various fields such as flexible circuits, displays, smart textiles, and wearable healthcare. In this study, we analyze a three-order spiderweb inspired hexagonal interconnect architecture to assess its uniaxial stretchability, thermal stresses with electromagnetic heating of wire as well as contacts, and changes in passive parameter through bending of the structure through finite element analysis (FEA). Furthermore, we explore the impact of electrical load on the thermal stability of the structure with effect of applying voltage on the wire and the stress changes in the structure along with thermal effects on contacts with Multiphysics simulations through electromagnetic heating. We also introduced the concept of “filling ratio (FR)” for spiderweb geometries with even polygonal symmetry-based architectures with emphasis on efficient designing of the island-interconnect structure on large area structure. An analytical model has been developed to estimate alterations in resistance, self-capacitance, and self-inductance of the wires under uni/multiaxial stress. Both the FEA and the model exhibit close agreement for the passive electrical parameters at planar stretchability.