<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Aptos;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div class="WordSection1">
<div align="center">
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600" style="width:6.25in">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><img width="600" height="171" style="width:6.25in;height:1.7812in" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.png@01DBA675.E9669440" alt="Thesis Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering"></span><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div align="center">
<table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="background:white">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding:30.0pt 15.0pt 7.5pt 15.0pt">
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;mso-line-height-alt:15.0pt">
<b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#C8102E">Reliability-Aware Design of Flexible Hybrid Electronics<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:15.0pt">
<b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:15.0pt">
<b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Iyad Alhasan
</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">April 25, 2025, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (CST)<br>
Location: </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black"><a href="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$"><span style="color:#467886">Teams
Meeting</span></a></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Meeting ID: 285 887 614 847</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Passcode: eu6Pg6cD</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:3.75pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:3.75pt;text-align:center;line-height:16.5pt">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Committee Chair:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
Biresh Joardar, Ph.D. </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-bottom:15.0pt;text-align:center;line-height:15.0pt">
<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Committee Members:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
Yuhua Chen, Ph.D. | Xin Fu, Ph.D. | Jinghong Chen, Ph.D.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 15.0pt 15.0pt 15.0pt">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C8102E;mso-ligatures:none">Abstract</span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#C8102E;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:11.3pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.3pt;margin-left:0in">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">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. </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:11.3pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.3pt;margin-left:0in">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">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.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><img border="0" width="600" height="82" style="width:6.25in;height:.8541in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.png@01DBA675.E9669440" alt="Engineered For What's Next"></span><span style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:8.0pt;line-height:106%"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:106%;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>