Invitation: MS Thesis Defense of Navjot Singh Badyal

Hello ME Community,
You are invited to join the MS Thesis Defense of Navjot Singh Badyal, on Thursday, May 21, beginning at 9:00am.  The defense will be presented in person in the Engineering Building room 112.

Advisor: Dr. Soobum Lee

Title: Reward-Guided Beam Search Algorithm for Electronic Routing in Stretchable Electronics

Abstract:
This paper presents a reward-guided beam search method for conductive path routing in stretchable electronics systems considering both electrical and mechanical performance. Routing conductive paths in stretchable electronics requires generating feasible paths within a constrained design space while maintaining high electrical performance and reducing  mechanical failure risk. In this work, conductive paths are generated sequentially on a grid-based design space, and candidate paths are evaluated using reward values derived from electrical and mechanical  performance metrics. The electrical performance is evaluated using the  quality factor ($Q$), while the mechanical performance is evaluated using finite element analysis through the maximum von Mises stress in the copper trace and the maximum strain gradient at the copper--substrate interface.  The proposed method is demonstrated through multiple case studies with  different reward-weight combinations, and the resulting routing paths are  compared with those obtained using a genetic algorithm (GA)-based  approach. The results show that the proposed method can efficiently  generate feasible conductive paths and provide effective design trade-offs between high quality factor, reduced stress, and reduced strain gradient.