ROI DUE DILIGENCE REPORT

Office of Sponsored Bureau de la

Research recherche

Invention No. 16120

OTT Officer: Mark Weber

Title of Invention Bistable Auxetic Materials and Structures

Date Reported March 23, 2016
Inventor(s) Professor Damiano Pasini, Dr. Ahmad Rafsanjani Abbasi

Summary
Initial Due Diligence
1. Technical Assessment
- Overview of invention:
There is an intense strive in industry to develop morphable materials for a wide range
of applications including multifunctional products, aerospace components, and medical
devices. These include stents, wound dressing patches and artificial skin grafts,
stretchable electronics and flexible display screens, textiles, gears and shoes, wearable
exoskeletons, robotic grippers, deployable systems at multiple length scale, e.g.
aerospace antennas, umbrellas and foldable canopies, sunshade and parasol, and others.
Auxetic materials become thicker rather than thinner when stretched, exhibiting an
unusual negative Poissons ratio, and are well-suited for designing shape-transforming
materials and structures. Current designs, however, are often monostable and cannot
maintain the transformed shape upon load removal. Having bistable capability, where
the shape is maintained without the need for force, would be advantageous. The
invention is a new design for a bistable auxetic metamaterial comprising rotating units
with different shapes, including triangles or squares. The metamaterial is fabricated by
perforating a symmetric cut pattern into a planar sheet of material giving rise to a
stretchy material. The proposed design is scale-free and can accommodate a large
deformation by traveling between two states namely undeformed/closed and
expanded/open configurations. These functions make it suitable for use as a mechanical
switch by turning on and off certain mechanical properties. The tunable geometry of the
cuts enables a high microstructural control over the material, which in turn leads to
unprecedented co-existence of auxeticity and structural bistability. The fabrication is
straight-forward, scalable, flexible and can be performed by laser cutting and other
techniques. Various examples of the concept and the stability of the expanded design
are shown below.

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Fig. (a, b) Brick decorations based on square and triangular motifs in the Kharraqan twin tomb towers in
western Iran. (c, d) The building block and the corresponding unit cell in its undeformed and deformed
state comprises square and triangular rotating units with tilted cut motifs, which can maintain the stable
deformation pattern after the load release. (e-h) Undeformed and deformed states of bistable auxetics
with square and triangular rotating units for circular and parallel cut motifs.

- Type of development:
New design. Current auxetic designs cannot maintain their deformed shape unless a
continuous force is constantly applied to retain their deformation. The proposed design,
on the other hand, can keep its deformed configuration without the use of an external
load, and can reversibly resume to its undeformed state when needed. This
metamaterial can be called a structural bistable auxetic.
- Advances, improvements or benefits:
This material open up multiple avenues to create rotating-unit geometries that can yield
unprecedented properties and mechanical response compared to existing materials,
including natural materials and conventional auxetics. The enhanced flexibility and
conformability of the proposed design can be pursued for a wide range of applications.
Fabrication is easy and fast compared to materials with similar structural complexity.
The concepts can be pursues with a range of materials including weaving textiles.
- Deficiencies or limitations:
Project is at an early stage, however several analytical and experimental investigations
have been already conducted and several proof-of-concept prototypes are demonstrated.
The next step is to apply the concepts to practical applications.

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- Technical barriers to commercialization:

The concept is not yet applied to any specific application. A list of products and
technologies that would greatly benefited from bistable auxetic geometries is currently
being developed. The team is planning on having such development within the next six
to twelve months.
- Milestones/state of technology:
The performance of bistable auxetics is evaluated on rubber materials. Plan on testing
other materials within the next six to twelve months to expand the applications of this
technology.
2. Patentability
- Novel, non-obvious, utility:
Utility is not an issue, as there is a clear market opportunity for products using the
bistable auxetic concept. Novelty should not be a hurdle, so we will focus on non-
obviousness in the patent application.
- Freedom to operate:
Should be able to claim the process to construct the bistable auxetic. Will look to try to
protect products made with via the process.
- Preliminary patent search (library with/without PI):
A patent search was done using Derwent by the manager, Prof. Pasini, and the post-
doctoral fellow. The inventors have reviewed the findings. A summary is provided at
the end of the document showing the results and the differences between the prior art
and the current technology. No patents were found that utilize the same technology as
the invention. Most of the patent applications associated with large companies (Rolls
Royce, Nike, Under Armour, etc.) were filed in North America only.
- Literature search:
A literature search was done by the inventors. Nothing identical to the current invention
was found.
- Enforceability:
The uniqueness of the product should make it enforceable.
- Has the Lead Inventor provided a manuscript or other document suitable for being used
to prepare a patent application? If not, when will it be ready?
James Reid of Norton Rose Fulbright is the choice as patent agent. We are suggesting a
US provisional patent application at this time.
3. Products or Services
- Describe the products or services that will be derived from the invention:
A potential list of products includes:
o Deployable medical stents to treat stenotic lesion in body vessels
o Wound dressing patches with switchable permeability
o Artificial skin graft
o Stretchable electronic devices such as flexible display screens that can shrink
and expand
o Shades and blinds for covering or passing light, tunable light filters

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o Kitchenware, such as resizable trivets

o Solar panels and other deployable structures used in aerospace and beyond,
including umbrellas
o Durable fabrics
o Expandable walls, roofs, panels combining artistic and mechanical functions
o Compact nets
o Weaving textiles for interior vehicles
- Are these new products or modifications/ enhancements of existing products?
The product is new, and its design and fabrication are unique compared to any other
auxetic material currently available.
- Are these products need to have or nice to have?
The products could soon be need to have due to a variety of inadequacies in current
structural designs. Currently, there is no two-dimensional bistable structure and all
bistable designs are unidirectional. Having a bistable auxetic material in the market
brings many possibilities for designing new products with new functionalities.
4. Market Evaluation
- Current targeted market and size in terms of $ and/or number of units sold:
It is difficult to evaluate the market size, as this is a platform technology. There are a
number of potential markets that have been mentioned in previous sections. A review of
the market size for several of these is shown in Table 1. Many of these applications are
in very large and growing markets, making it possible to penetrate several different
segments.

Table 1: Potential Markets for Auxetic and Bistable Materials ($ millions, BCC)

Market 2012 2013 2014 2018 2019 CAGR%

Smart clothing 515 685 918 1,720 - 20.2
and textiles
Stents - 7,922.30 8,070.50 - 10,649.30 5.7
Wound closures 279.5 332.8 - 547.2 - 10.5
Solar panels - - 383 - 1,464 25.1
Displays 833.6 866.9 - 2,870 - 27.1

- Forecast market size and growth rates:

Many of the markets have significant projected growth. New materials to meet demand
will be essential.
- Unmet need recognized, expressed interest by companies or potential users:
The presentation and BBC piece have generated interest from external parties. The
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has contacted Prof. Pasini and would
like to use his technology for a kitchen trivet to be sold in their gift shop. An

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experienced curator in world-known museums, e.g. Aga Khan Museum, proposed

organizing exhibition traveling tours. Another company, Faraday & Future Inc.
(www.faradayfuture.com), has approached Prof. Pasini and are interested in further
details in the technology, in particular the application of the concept to weaving textiles
for the interiors of their electric vehicles in California. Another design and handwriting
consultant showed also interested in contributing to the application of the concept for
clothing in particular, for exercise gear, hosiery, and shapewear/figure control
garments.
- Interest of the researcher in further development of the invention:
The researchers are very interested in bringing the project to market. Prof. Pasini has
commercialization experience from his implant invention and students in his group
would like to continue working on the project to expand it further to three-dimensional
surfaces and optimizing the performance of bistable auxetics The objective is to move
to the application phase and establish the feasibility of the concepts with other materials
too, such as weaving textiles.
Summary
Background
5. ROI Completeness
- Any missing information: No.
6. Collaboration
- Non-McGill inventors: None.
- Inter-institutional agreement: None.
- Research collaboration agreement: None.
7. Disclosures
- Any publications (including thesis or abstracts), in print or electronic and dates:
None to date.
- Conferences or other oral disclosures, the audience and dates:
o Oral presentation at American Physical Society (APS) meeting, March 2016
(Baltimore, USA)
o BBC News
- Disclosures to industry, type, dates, any agreements:
Nothing to date, although the inventors have been contacted by external parties and
asked by Faraday Future to sign an NDA to verify the potential application of the
concept to textiles.

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Decision:
Move ahead with Defer (specify date) Decline
commercialization

Signatures:

________________________ ________________________
LEAD INVENTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OFFICER
Date:______________ Date:______________

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Review of Patent Landscape

Number Title Assignee Summary Findings

US 8652602 Rotational William Jacob Auxetic structures exhibiting A lattice with negative
B1 expansion auxetic Spenner Dolla negative Poissons ratios Poissons ratio but not
structures including planar auxetic bistable as McGill
structures formed from x- technology.
axis and y-axis strands of
selected waveforms.
US Auxetic stents Mkp Stents of the type used to Planar re-entrant auxetic
20110029063 Structural treat and prevent localized behavior with
A1 Design flow constriction in body anisotropic response
Associates, vessels are based upon different than McGill
Inc. negative Poissons ratio technology rotating unit
(NPR) structures. auxetics with planar
isotropic behavior.
US Rapidly deployable Zheng-Dong Reconfigurable, expandable- Planar re-entrant auxetic
20130322955 structures based Ma collapsible structures based behavior created by an
A1 upon negative upon negative Poissons assembly of jointed
Poissons ratio ratio (NPR) auxetic unit bodies. Fabrication,
(NPR) auxetic cells achieve rapidly performance and final
components deployable apparatus, product are different
devices and systems. from McGill invention.
US Auxetic Structures Nike, Inc. A material that includes at Conventional perforated
20150075033 and Footwear with least one layer made of an auxetics based on
A1 Soles Having auxetic structure and articles triangular grids but does
Auxetic Structures of footwear having soles not show bistable shape
comprising the materials. transformation of McGill
invention.
WO Auxetic stucture Rolls-Royce A material which exhibits Conventional perforated
2014149078 with stress-relief Canada, Ltd., auxetic characteristics and auxetics based on square
A1 features Rolls-Royce control of thermal expansion grids but does not show
Corporation characteristics while bistable shape
experiencing significant transformation as McGill
stress reduction invention.
US 8034103 Annuloplasty Sorin An annuloplasty prosthesis Re-entrant and chiral
B2 prosthesis with an Biomedica including an inner tubular auxetic lattices different
auxetic structure Cardio S.R.L. member having a lateral wall than perforated bistable
and exhibiting auxetic auxetics proposed by
behavior when subject to a McGill Technology.
tensile stress along the
longitudinal axis of at least
one of its portions.
US 8544515 Ultralightweight Mkp Negative Poissons ratio Re-entrant auxetic lattice
B2 runflat tires based Structural (NPR) or auxetic are used to but not bistable and not

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upon negative Design make lightweight wheels and perforated as McGill

Poisson ratio Associates, runflat tires. Technology.
(NPR) auxetic Inc.
structures
US Structured Boyce A structured porous 2D and 3D perforated
20110059291 materials with Christopher materials with a tailored auxetic materials but not
A1 tailored isotropic M, Simona Poissons ratio behavior bistable as McGill
and anisotropic Socrate, ranging from negative to technology.
Poissons ratios Greviskes zero.
including negative Brian P,
and zero Poissons Boyce Mary C
ratios
US Garments having Hanesbrands A garment is provided that Re-entrant auxetic but
20080032598 auxetic foam layers Inc. has a support region and a not having rotating units
A1 foam pad at the region. and not bistable as
McGill technology.
EP 2702884 Articles of apparel Under An article of apparel Re-entrant and rotating
A1 including auxetic Armour, Inc. includes a base layer and an unit auxetics but not
materials auxetic layer. exhibiting McGill
technology multi-stable
shape transformation.
US Actuator and Baker Hughes An actuator includes a Re-entrant auxetic
20110240286 tubular actuator Incorporated tubular configured to lattice, different than
A1 longitudinally expand in rotating unit auxetic and
response to radial expansion not bistable as McGill
of at least a portion of the invention.
tubular.
US Auxetic locking pin Rolls-Royce An auxetic locking structure Cellular structure
20140270936 Canada, Ltd. can be used as a mechanism exhibiting auxetic
A1 for securing two or more behavior at large
members in an assembly or deformation but not
other system. bistable as McGill
technology.
US 8772187 Auxetic fabric University Of Auxetic fabric structures, of Not bistable like the
B2 structures and Massachusetts the sort which can be useful McGill technology.
related fabrication in conjunction with
methods composite materials, and
related methods of
fabrication.
WO Structured porous Rmit A structured porous Not bistable like the
2015109359 metamaterial University metamaterial comprising a McGill technology.
A1 three-dimensional matrix
US Void structures President And A void structure with a Not bistable like the
20160025343 with repeating Fellows Of repeating elongated-aperture McGill technology.
A1 Harvard pattern designed to provide

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elongated-aperture College, negative Poissons Ratio

pattern Rolls-Royce behavior under macroscopic
Canada, Ltd. stress and strain loading.
US Bushings and Mkp The structure is composed of Not bistable like the
20140017422 bumpers based Structural a plurality of nested, double- McGill technology.
A1 upon NPR Design V unit cells.
(negative Poissons Associates,
ratio) structures Inc.
US Micro-structured The Regents Techniques, systems, Not bistable like the
20130344601 biomaterials and Of The apparatus and material for McGill technology.
A1 fabrication methods University Of fabricating a three-
therefor California dimensional solid-phase
micro-cellular biomaterial
that exhibits a negative
Poisson ratio that is tunable
in magnitude.

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