IN Brief:
- SEMI FlexTech has issued a 2026 RFP for flexible hybrid electronics development.
- The programme is funded by the Army Research Laboratory and offers selected project awards of $250,000 to $500,000.
- Target areas include flexible and moldable electronics, bonding reliability, 2D materials, and flexible energy storage.
SEMI FlexTech has opened a 2026 request for proposals to advance flexible hybrid electronics, with funding from the Army Research Laboratory and selected project awards ranging from $250,000 to $500,000.
The RFP is open until July 6, 2026, and targets flexible and moldable electronics, advanced bonding reliability, novel flexible energy storage beyond conventional architectures, and 2D materials. ARL funding will be matched by contributions from selected recipients to cover total project cost.
Submissions will be assessed on technical rationale, budget, collaboration value, dual-use applicability, relevance to the flexible hybrid electronics ecosystem, schedules and milestones, deliverables, and overall proposal quality. The evaluation committee will include FlexTech Council members and subject-matter experts.
Flexible hybrid electronics sits between conventional rigid electronics and fully printed or stretchable systems. The field combines thin, flexible, printed, and mounted components into assemblies that can conform to surfaces, fit into unusual mechanical envelopes, or survive applications where rigid boards are physically restrictive.
Defence interest is driven by applications where shape, weight, and placement are as important as electrical performance. Conformal sensors, wearable electronics, structural monitoring, soft robotic systems, distributed antennas, and low-profile electronics all require assemblies that can bend, attach, or embed without behaving like a conventional PCB.
The selected topic areas reflect several unresolved engineering barriers. Advanced bonding reliability remains one of the central deployment issues, because the interface between flexible substrates, mounted components, conductive traces, encapsulation, and mechanical strain often determines lifetime. A device that performs well electrically on a bench may still fail under repeated bending, thermal cycling, moisture exposure, or field handling.
Flexible energy storage introduces another constraint. Wearable, moldable, or distributed electronics need power sources that fit the mechanical behaviour of the device. Conventional cells can impose size, shape, stiffness, and packaging penalties that reduce the value of flexible electronics in the first place. New storage architectures could widen the design space for autonomous sensors and flexible electronic systems.
2D materials provide a longer-term route into sensing, interconnect, storage, and device structures. Their inclusion keeps the programme linked to materials-level research as well as near-term packaging and manufacturing work, giving the RFP a span from applied reliability improvements to earlier-stage platform technologies.
Recent defence electronics work has already shown how electronic systems are being pulled into tougher physical environments, from electronic-warfare test and simulation to resilient links for autonomous systems. Flexible hybrid electronics addresses another layer of the same shift: how electronic functions are integrated into platforms, personnel systems, and structures where flat boards are too bulky, exposed, or mechanically limiting.
The dual-use structure gives the programme wider commercial relevance. Defence funding can help solve reliability, packaging, and materials problems that later migrate into medical devices, industrial sensing, logistics monitoring, robotics, and infrastructure inspection. A conformal defence sensor and a wearable medical patch may face different qualification regimes, but both depend on reliable interconnects, durable encapsulation, and power sources that fit the mechanical design.
The RFP is not a product launch, but it shows where public-private electronics investment is being directed: towards systems that can bend, conform, bond reliably, store energy in non-standard shapes, and survive outside the rectangular constraints of conventional PCB design.
