Screen printed sensors fabricated on non-planar surfaces by water transfer print

Abstract

Devising a cost effective way to fabricate sensors onto non-planar surfaces is of particular interest in many industrial applications such as condition monitoring or process controlling. This paper presents a low cost and low tech alternative approach for the fabrication of sensors on non-planar substrates in a two-step process. Screen printing is used to create a 2D pattern of the sensor on a water transfer foil which, in a second step, is transferred on a non-planar substrate using water transfer printing. We demonstrate the feasibility of this water transfer technique by fabricating a strain as well as a temperature sensor, which are both characterized and compared with state of the art screen printed sensors on planar substrates.