Flexible electronics has significantly advanced over the last few years, as devices and circuits from nanoscale structures to printed thin films have started to appear. Simultaneously, the demand for high-performance electronics has also increased because flexible and compact integrated circuits are needed to obtain fully flexible electronic systems. It is challenging to obtain flexible and compact integrated circuits as the silicon based CMOS electronics, which is currently the industry standard for high-performance, is planar and the brittle nature of silicon makes bendability difficult. For this reason, the ultra-thin chips from silicon is gaining interest. This review provides an in-depth analysis of various approaches for obtaining ultra-thin chips from rigid silicon wafer. The comprehensive study presented here includes analysis of ultra-thin chips properties such as the electrical, thermal, optical and mechanical properties, stress modelling, and packaging techniques. The underpinning advances in areas such as sensing, computing, data storage, and energy have been discussed along with several emerging applications (e.g., wearable systems, m-Health, smart cities and Internet of Things etc.) they will enable. This paper is targeted to the readers working in the field of integrated circuits on thin and bendable silicon; but it can be of broad interest to everyone working in the field of flexible electronics.

在过去的几年中，随着从纳米级结构到印刷薄膜的设备和电路的出现，柔性电子技术取得了显着进步。同时，对高性能电子产品的需求也增加了，因为需要灵活而紧凑的集成电路来获得完全灵活的电子系统。获得柔性和紧凑的集成电路是一项挑战，因为基于硅的CMOS电子产品（目前是高性能的行业标准）是平面的，并且硅的脆性使其难以弯曲。因此，来自硅的超薄芯片引起了人们的兴趣。这篇综述对从刚性硅晶片获得超薄芯片的各种方法进行了深入分析。这里介绍的全面研究包括对超薄芯片特性的分析，例如电，热，光学和机械特性，应力建模和封装技术。已经讨论了传感，计算，数据存储和能源等领域的基础进展，以及它们将支持的一些新兴应用程序（例如可穿戴系统，移动健康，智能城市和物联网等）。本文的目标读者是在薄而可弯曲的硅上从事集成电路领域工作的读者。但是它对于从事柔性电子领域工作的每个人都可能具有广泛的兴趣。已经讨论了能源和能源以及它们将支持的几个新兴应用（例如可穿戴系统，移动健康，智能城市和物联网等）。本文的目标读者是在薄而可弯曲的硅上从事集成电路领域工作的读者。但是它对于从事柔性电子领域工作的每个人都可能具有广泛的兴趣。已经讨论了能源和能源以及它们将支持的几个新兴应用（例如可穿戴系统，移动健康，智能城市和物联网等）。本文的目标读者是在薄而可弯曲的硅上从事集成电路领域工作的读者。但是它对于从事柔性电子领域工作的每个人都可能具有广泛的兴趣。