[CCoE Notice] Thesis Announcement: Iyad Alhasan, "Reliability-Aware Design of Flexible Hybrid Electronics"

[Greenwell, Stephen J]

[Thesis Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering]
Reliability-Aware Design of Flexible Hybrid Electronics

Iyad Alhasan
April 25, 2025, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (CST)
Location: Teams Meeting<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19*3ameeting_NGIwN2JlYzgtOGFjZi00ZGQ5LWE0MGQtOTI1Yjg3M2VkNWZm*40thread.v2/0?context=*7b*22Tid*22*3a*22170bbabd-a2f0-4c90-ad4b-0e8f0f0c4259*22*2c*22Oid*22*3a*220c96415e-f8b2-450d-9c8b-c0add95a9cf8*22*7d__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUl!!LkSTlj0I!AGVHzJ9RegVzeBd_nfakZtPQoiKGP8VvXgU5G1gbyCFsGrWumzcNWVVlgXDg9kCiETRxeoLAzeZmcsM6Qkbsx91AJe8$ >
Meeting ID: 285 887 614 847
Passcode: eu6Pg6cD

Committee Chair:
Biresh Joardar, Ph.D.
Committee Members:
Yuhua Chen, Ph.D. | Xin Fu, Ph.D. | Jinghong Chen, Ph.D.
Abstract
Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) integrates the flexibility of soft substrates along with conventional semiconductor devices to enable a wide spectrum of innovative solutions in areas like healthcare and defense. The popularity of FHE is evident from the NextFlex consortium, which includes various industry partners and the US Department of Defense.  Despite the high interest, the reliability of FHE circuits remains a concern, which limits its widespread adoption. More specifically, FHE devices are susceptible to mechanical stress (due to bending/stretching). Repeated application of stress (e.g., due to multiple bending), can lead to cracks, delaminations, which can result in an unreliable device. Prior research has tried to address this problem by finding new materials and fabrication methods that result in higher reliability. However, optimizing system level design to reduce stress has remained relatively unexplored. In this thesis, we propose a system-level design space exploration method that finds FHE designs that experience less stress, despite the same amount of force. We show that a careful design of an FHE board can reduce the maximum mechanical stress exerted on an FHE board by up to 59% despite the same amount of force being applied.
In addition, we identify open research problems in FHE for potential future work. As an example, securing FHE devices is necessary in applications like healthcare, where wearable devices have access to sensitive personal health data. However, traditional encryption methods do not offer full-privacy. At the end, we propose potential solutions to address this problem along with other future research directions.
[Engineered For What's Next]



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