Abstract
Printing sensors and electronics directly on the objects is very attractive for producing smart devices, but it is still a challenge. Indeed, in some applications, the substrate that supports the printed electronics could be non-planar or the thermal curing of the functional inks could damage temperature-sensitive substrates such as plastics, fabric or paper. In this paper, we propose a new method for manufacturing silver-based strain sensors with arbitrary and custom geometries directly on plastic objects with curvilinear surfaces: (1) the silver lines are deposited by aerosol jet printing, which can print on non-planar or 3D surfaces; (2) photonic sintering quickly cures the deposited layer, avoiding the overheating of the substrate. To validate the manufacturing process, we printed strain gauges with conventional geometry on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) conduits. The entire manufacturing process, included sensor wiring and optional encapsulation, is performed at room temperature, compatible with the plastic surface. At the end of the process, the measured thickness of the printed sensor was 8.72 μm on average, the volume resistivity was evaluated 40 μΩ∙cm, and the thermal coefficient resistance was measured 0.150 %/°C. The average resistance was (71 ± 7) Ω and the gauge factor was found to be 2.42 on average.
Highlights
Printed electronics (PE) is one of the most fasten growing sectors for developing sensors and electronics over the last few decades [1]
The strain sensor resistance was measured by a HP34401 configuration, the lead resistance introduced by the sensor and by the multimeter could be considered multimeter (Agilent, Santa Clara, CA, US) configured for 4-wire ohms measurements
The multimeter was controlled by custom LabVIEW Virtual Instruments (VIs) for setting configuration, the lead resistance introduced by the sensor and by the multimeter could be the multimeter and collecting and saving the raw measurements
Summary
Printed electronics (PE) is one of the most fasten growing sectors for developing sensors and electronics over the last few decades [1]. Since a large variety of materials can be adopted, PE can overcome some limitations of the silicon-based electronics, especially in flexible electronic applications such as flexible electrodes for healthcare applications [9], wearable devices [12], or bioelectronic applications by using organic semiconductors [13] which better match mechanical and conduction properties of biotic tissue. Since it offers low-cost processes for large areas and flexible applications [14]
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