A self-folding method that can fold a thick (~10 μm) metal layer with a large curvature (>1 mm⁻¹) and is resistant to repetitive folding deformation is proposed. Given the successful usage of hinged origami/kirigami structures forms in deployable structures, they show strong potential for application in stretchable electronic devices. There are, however, two key difficulties in applying origami/kirigami methods to stretchable electronic devices. The first is that a thick metal layer used as the conductive layer of electronic devices is too hard for self-folding as it is. Secondly, a thick metal layer breaks on repetitive folding deformation at a large curvature. To overcome these difficulties, this paper proposes a self-folding method using hinges on a thick metal layer by applying a meander structure. Such a structure can be folded at a large curvature even by weak driving forces (such as those produced by self-folding) and has mechanical resistance to repetitive folding deformation due to the local torsional deformation of the meander structure. To verify the method, the large curvature self-folding of thick metal layers and their mechanical resistance to repetitive folding deformation is experimentally demonstrated. In addition, an origami/kirigami hybrid stretchable electronic device with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is fabricated using a double-tiling structure called the perforated extruded Miura-ori.

The flexibility of thermoelectric generators (TEGs) is important for low-contact thermal resistance to curved heat sources. However, approaches that depend on soft materials, which are used in most existing studies, have the problem of low performance in terms of the substrate’s thermal conductivity and the thermoelectric conversion efficiency of the thermoelectric (TE) elements. In this study, we propose a method to fabricate “Origami-TEG”, a TEG with an origami structure that enables both flexibility and the usage of high-performance rigid materials by self-folding. By applying the principle of the linkage mechanism to self-folding, we realized a fabrication process in which the TE element-mounting process and the active-material-addition process were separated in time. The fabricated origami-TEG showed similar internal resistance and maximum output power when attached to heat sources with flat and curved surfaces. Furthermore, it exhibited high-performance stability against both stretching and bending deformations.

Origami is garnering attention in fields such as medical and electronic devices as this approach allows transitioning from a 2D to a 3D structure. Self‐folding method is effective for fabricating origami structures, but conventional strategy of self‐folding by driving all hinges is unsophisticated and thus makes redundancy and unnecessary limitations in fabrication. The behavior of deformation of origami structures can be described as a linkage mechanism, so that the degree of freedom of the origami structure is essentially not equal to the number of hinges. Herein, a self‐folding method is proposed for origami structures such that an entire structure can be folded by driving only a few hinges using the characteristics of force transmission of origami as a linkage mechanism. This proposed self‐folding method allows the selection of the position of the driving hinges and enables the self‐folding of origami structures with the restrictions of the position of the driving hinge. In addition, the method can provide high process compatibility for the fabrication and folding processes of origami devices.