European Research Project
MultiStripes
Hybrid integrated
high performance
electronic stripes
Creating complex circuitry, interconnects and mass die transfer on large area foils.
15 Partners · 3 European Countries
About the Project
MultiStripes
In a number of today’s miniaturised electronics applications, conventional cable wiring is both costly and wasteful of materials. It also restricts scope to innovate and increase product performance.
The MultiStripes project is addressing these limitations by developing technologies and production techniques for long, smart, flexible electronic systems — ‘multistripes’ — that can replace traditional cables and printed circuit boards.
The partners will create a technology platform and manufacturing techniques for roll-to-roll (R2R) processing and integration of electronic components onto very long (‘endless’) flexible web substrates.
This will open the way to higher performance products and new applications, while also reducing the cost and environmental impact of manufacturing.
Key Objectives
Why it Matters
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Higher Performance Products
Enabling new applications and superior product performance that conventional cable wiring cannot achieve.
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Reduced Environmental Impact
Lowering both the cost and ecological footprint of electronics manufacturing through smarter material use.
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European Competitiveness
Enabling Europe to compete globally in the production of flexible electronics with significant advances in sustainability.
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Technology Platform
Creating a shared R2R manufacturing platform and techniques for endless flexible web substrates.
Latest Updates
News
MultiStripes Kick-Off Meeting
This week saw the kick-off meeting of the jointly funded MultiStripes project, bringing together several organisations from the UK, the Netherlands and Finland. The meeting was organised and hosted by Peter Bancken and the Signify team.
Screentec Oy’s goal in the project is to support the project use cases with their manufacturing know-how and to develop screen printing processing capabilities to the next level. The project is funded by national funding instruments and forms part of the call organised by XECS and EUREKA.
Focus Areas
Key Application Areas
Medical Use Cases
Flexible Large-Area Ultrasound Devices
Leveraging CMUT technology and advanced ASIC designs to create flexible ultrasound devices for bladder monitoring, pregnancy monitoring and remote health monitoring over large body areas.
XIVER
Active Implants
Flexible PCB-based implantable sensors for neuro-recording and ECG applications, featuring hermetically encapsulated data processing units and biocompatible assembly technologies.
OSYPKA
Home Treatment ECG Sensor Sheet
Wearable sensors for continuous ECG monitoring integrated into stretchable electronic films, suitable for hospital and home care with high-density data acquisition.
Capical
Lighting Use Cases
Hospitality Lighting
Multi-color LED strips of several metres assembled in printed electronics with 5-channel multilayer flex foil, scaling to large luminous surfaces (~1m²) with dynamic light patterns and organic 3D shapes.
Signify
Automotive Lighting
In-Mold Structural Electronics (IMSE®) integrating dynamic illumination with hundreds to thousands of LEDs into large automotive parts such as front grilles, door panels and dashboards.
TactoTek
IoT Use Cases
Long Distance Communicating IoT Devices
Next-generation flexible RFID-based sensor tags for retail, logistics, wearables and environmental monitoring, manufactured via resource-efficient roll-to-roll printing on flexible substrates.
Elcoflex
Flexible Computing & Printed Sensors
Graphene-based printed sensors for continuous troponin monitoring, enabling early heart-attack detection for high-risk patients at home — integrated onto flexible substrates for IoT applications.
Pragmatic / Paragraf
Sensor Tape
Flexible sensor-integrated tape with embedded foil-based sensor patches for real-time leak detection and localisation in industrial settings, supplied as a rollable laminate cut to size.
Lohmann
How it Works
Technical Platform
The MultiStripes technology platform advances three key pillars: creating multilayered circuitry on flexible foils, populating them with electronic components, and forming reliable interconnects — all developed across a 23-partner consortium.
Multilayered Circuit Creation
Technologies to deposit and pattern high-resolution, multi-layer circuitry on both sides of flexible foil substrates.
Roll-to-Roll Lithography
Single-layer copper patterning with 100 µm line/space resolution up to 1.5 m length on flexible substrates (PI, PET, TPU) at widths of 20 cm, processing multiple stripes simultaneously.
Screen Printing
Fast deposition of 100 µm patterned metal inks (silver, copper) and dielectric layers on 60 cm wide foil webs, enabling multilayer (<3) large-distance seamless communication channels.
High-Resolution Screen Printing
Metal tracks below 50 µm deposited in a honeycomb structure to create transparent (>90% transmission) busbars for lighting applications, using novel laser-assisted techniques.
Foil Transfer Method
Aluminium or copper foil is patterned and R2R transferred at 1 m/min onto flexible substrates (PET, PEN, paper, fabric) via adhesive film. A chemical-free process supporting high current carrying (>10× vs printing) for antennas and busbars.
Impulse Printing
Single-layer deposition of high-resolution (10 µm) copper and silver layers on flat and wrap-around surfaces in S2S format at instant speed, also applicable for interconnect deposition at 200,000 interconnects/min.
Print / Plating Combination
Conductive seed layers are printed on foil substrates then galvanically grown into copper tracks (20–50 µm). Bulk copper conductance makes this ideal for antennas and busbars with sufficient robustness for soldering and via creation.
Graphene Sensor Deposition
Active electrochemical sensor creation using graphene for selective troponin detection (LOD: 80 pg/mL), with integrated control and readout electronics incorporating at least 10-bit ADC and 4-bit DAC functions.
Component Assembly
High-volume, high-speed placement of SMT components, ASICs and flexible electronic components onto circuitry rolls and web substrates.
SMT Pick & Place (S2S / R2R)
Roll-to-roll component assembly on circuitry rolls (<60 cm) at 4 components/s, combined with mass die transfer for high-volume assembly at >100 components/s with 50 µm pad resolution for bare dies and foil-based TFT components.
ASIC & Chip Integration
Chip thinning down to 20–30 µm with heterogeneous integration of ultra-thin chips into flexible modules with >40 I/O, 15 µm pad size and 35–65 µm module thickness. Includes ASIC designs for arrays of >1,000 ultrasound transducers.
Film-to-Roll Bonding
A split assembly process: ICs, sensors and passives are first assembled on sheet-level film modules (~2 cm × 2 cm), electrically pre-tested, then bonded onto the web substrate by R2R processing — enabling full multi-layer integration on long stripes.
Interconnect Technologies
Reliable, high-density connection techniques for joining components and circuit layers on temperature-sensitive flexible substrates.
Low-Temperature & Pixel Soldering
Soldering on Cu and Ag structures at 130 °C for reliable interconnects on low-temperature foils, with pixel soldering providing highly localised heating at 100 µm resolution for 5–10 s curing — patent pending.
NanoWiring & KlettWelding
For temperature-sensitive substrates, KlettWelding bonds pads down to 5 µm diameter at room temperature (25 °C) in under 100 ms. KlettSintering applies to pads with 0.1 µm NanoWiring on one side from 170 °C for stronger joints.
Modelling & Simulation
The FTL toolset (developed in HyPerStripes) provides design and simulation for 2-layer flexible electronics, with customisation beyond commercial platforms. Outputs in KiCad with 3D visualisation for stretchability, bending and moisture behaviour.
Consortium
Project Partners
15 partners from three European countries cooperating on the development of solutions for flexible interconnects and complex circuitry on large area foils.
Finland
Netherlands
United Kingdom
Elcoflex Ltd.
Screentec Oy
TactoTek Oy
VTT Technical Research Centre
Delft University of Technology
FononTech B.V.
Philips Electronics Nederland
Signify
TNO
TracXon B.V.
XIVER MEMS Foundry
Paragraf Ltd
Pragmatic Semiconductor Ltd.
University of Cumbria
MultiStripes
HYbrid integrated high performance electronic strip
under construction
XECS Call 4 Eureka Cluster
15 partners—-3 European Countries