Highly sensitive wide range linear integrated temperature compensated humidity sensors fabricated using Electrohydrodynamic printing and electrospray deposition

Abstract

Percentage relative humidity is dependent on environmental temperature but the fact is ignored in most of research on humidity sensors. Secondly, the physical size of sensors should be small enough to enable integration on a commercial microchip. In this work, an integrated micro temperature plus humidity sensor system is presented that compensates for the effect of surrounding temperature on the output resistance of humidity sensor. The sensors were fabricated using Electrohydrodynamic drop-on-demand (EHD-DOD) printing for the electrodes, and Electrospray deposition (ESD) for active layer fabrication of humidity sensors. Electrode line widths were 10 μm while the combined area of both sensors was ∼2 mm2. Meander type silver patterns were used as resistive temperature sensors and interdigitated transducer (IDT) electrodes were used for humidity sensors. The active layer of humidity sensors was fabricated using a novel composite of Polyethylene Oxide (PEO) and 2D Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) flakes to achieve a highly sensitive (85 kΩ/%RH) and almost linear response for a wide detection range (0–80% RH) of relative humidity. A mathematical model relating the outputs of both sensors was developed to compensate for the effects of temperature. The system presents optimal solution for commercialization ready temperature compensated integrated micro temperature and humidity sensors fabricated through all printing techniques.