NOVELTY - The method comprises coating a receiving substrate having a first Young's modulus with an isolation layer having a second Young's modulus, transferring a printable electronic device from a support substrate to the isolation layer receiving surface, encapsulating a portion of the transferred electronic device in an encapsulation layer, and generating a pattern of spatially inhomogeneous property in a spatially inhomogeneous layer to provide flexible and foldable regions in a multilayer device and rigid regions in the device.    USE - The method is useful for making a stretchable, foldable and bendable electronic device having a curved surface, where the device includes integrated circuits, imagers or optoelectronic device, a hemispherical optical imager or an electronic eye, sophisticated cameras for retinal implants, CMOS circuit, biological and/or chemical sensors, physical sensors (e.g. temperature, light and radiation), gallium arsenide multilayer solar cell or photovoltaic arrays, display arrays and optical collectors and is useful in switching elements for active matrix flat panel displays with non-emissive pixels and in light emitting diodes.    ADVANTAGE - The method is capable of efficiently, rapidly, economically and reliably making the highly stretchable, bendable and foldable, strain-independent and ultrathin electronic device with improved electronic, mechanical and optical properties, high performance and high-resolution.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - The method comprises coating a receiving substrate having a first Young's modulus with an isolation layer having a second Young's modulus, transferring a printable electronic device from a support substrate to the isolation layer receiving surface, encapsulating a portion of the transferred electronic device in an encapsulation layer, generating a pattern of spatially inhomogeneous property in a spatially inhomogeneous layer to provide flexible and foldable regions in a multilayer device and rigid regions in the device, and conformally wrapping a curvilinear surface with the multilayer device for making a stretchable and foldable electronic device with a curved surface. A ratio of the first Young's modulus to the second Young's modulus is greater than or equal to 10. The isolation layer has a receiving surface, isolates a portion of the transferred electronic device from an applied strain, provides greater than or equal to 20% strain isolation compared to a device without the strain isolation layer, and comprises a polymer, which partially penetrates the receiving substrate. The receiving substrate comprises a material consisting of a polymer, an elastomer, a ceramic, a metal, a glass, a semiconductor, an inorganic polymer, an organic polymer, fabric, vinyl, latex, spandex, leather and paper. The printable electronic device comprises a component of an electronic device, where the component comprises interconnects. A portion of interconnects has a curved geometry. The receiving substrate comprises fibers, where a portion of the fibers are embedded in the isolation layer, and has a surface texture to increase contact area between the isolation layer and the receiving substrate. The encapsulation layer has a Young's modulus that is less than or equal to the second Young's modulus, and inhomogeneous Young's modulus. The multilayer device comprises a substrate layer, a functional layer and neutral mechanical surface adjusting layers, where the functional layer is supported by the substrate layer and comprises a pop-up interconnect. The spatially inhomogeneous property positions a neutral mechanical surface that is coincident or proximate to the functional layer. The inhomogeneous property consists of Young's modulus, deposition of an add layer, layer thickness, recess feature, spatially patterning a device component in the functional layer, or geometry of the electronic component in the functional layer. The spatial inhomogeneity is provided by a step comprising lateral patterning of the layers. The lateral patterning is provided by patterning the substrate with neutral mechanical surface adjusting layers comprising thin films or add layers and encapsulating layers and with recess features, which are etch holes, by selectively varying a thickness of the substrate layer or the neutral mechanical surface adjusting layers, and by modulating a mechanical property of the substrate layer or the neutral mechanical surface adjusting layers. The mechanical property consists of porosity, extent of cross linking and Young's modulus. The encapsulating layer has a thickness that varies selectively in a lateral direction. The method further comprises positioning a neutral mechanical plane to be coincident or proximate to the functional layer that is most sensitive to strain-induced failure, coating a portion of a carrier layer surface with a sacrificial layer, attaching the substrate layer to the sacrificial layer, where the substrate layer supports the component of electronic device, patterning the sacrificial layer access openings through the substrate layer, and releasing the substrate layer from the carrier layer surface by introducing a sacrificial-removing material to the sacrificial layer via the access openings for obtaining the electronic device. INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for:    (1) a stretchable and foldable electronic device;    (2) a method of patterning an array of electronic devices on a surface;    (3) a method for printing planar electronic devices to curved surfaces; and    (4) a device for applying a force to a curvilinear elastomeric stamp to flatten the stamp.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The diagram shows an optical image of an array of stretchable, wavy three stage complementary metal oxide semiconductor ring oscillators and magnified views of a typical oscillator at different applied strains oriented along the direction of the red arrow.