Screen printed flexible pressure sensors skin

Abstract

This paper presents all screen printed flexible pressure sensors arrays with Polyvinylidene Fluoride-Trifluoroethylene P(VDF-TrFE) sandwiched between patterned metal layers. Whilst bottom electrodes and P(VDF-TrFE) are printed on a 25 μm thick polyamide (PI) substrate, the top electrodes with force concentrator posts on backside are printed on a separate polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate and the two are then adhered with good alignment. Each sensor module consists of 4×4 sensors array, with each sensor having 1×1 mm2 sensitive area, and interconnection lines for expandability of the cells. Capacitance-voltage analysis at varying frequency and piezoelectric response of the sensor is presented. Whole package of foldable pressure sensor realized is completely developed by screen printing technology and is targeted towards realizing low-cost electronic skin. The sensors arrays have also been compared with similar sensors structures that were realized with spin coating.