CAMBRIDGE, UK -- While the latest electronic components continue to push the boundaries of performance, there are many that now see Moore’s Law reaching its ultimate limits.

Electronic devices continue to achieve increasing levels of ubiquity, but for this to continue, electronics need new form factors in order to integrate seamlessly into our surroundings. This major paradigm shift toward novel form factors has been in the making for more than a decade now, yet is only now beginning to make a substantial commercial impact.

In the past few years there has been a significant influx of commercial players introducing new stretchable electronic products to the market. Most of these new commercial examples have presented material and component options that will find their way into new stretchable products in the coming years. 

These stretchable electronic components will form the basis of new products across a series of industries. In some cases, these products will be novel, as stretchability enables electronics to go where they have not been present before. This could be part of skin patches, surgical catheter, within a compression garment or bandage or as a smart skin or novel end effector for a robot. In other cases, stretchable electronics will enhance our existing products, enabling the addition of electronic functionality and utility improvements. This could be as an extension to an existing medical device, or a new one in a hospital bedsheet or gown, as a console in a vehicle or in white goods or as other structural electronics, examples of which are beginning to appear today.

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