Agenda

Organic and printed electronics is opening new doors for product integration and design of optical sensors and image sensors : large area sensing, thin, conformable, robust to shock. Product developments are started for medical X ray imaging and industry 4.0 / internet-of-things with inventory control sensors and scanner surfaces.

Brewer Science continues to develop printable carbon-based electronics materials to enable transducer and sensor technologies for a wide span of applications. Ultrafast temperature, humidity, gas, and biosensors can all be used in health, industrial, and environmental monitoring applications. Strain and stress sensors can be used to monitor a wide range of conditions such as structural integrity, conditions shipping containers have experienced in transit, and even, potentially, the flex strain on airplane wings. Many of these applications provide elements critical to the future Internet of Things.

 

To facilitate these transducer and sensor technologies, key materials are needed. Two materials that are in advanced development at Brewer Science are surfactant-free carbon nanotube and graphene dispersions that meet CMOS purity requirements. Surfactant-free carbon dispersions are critical to prevent variability in device performance, and they also reduce waste streams. The CMOS purity of these materials aids in device-to-device consistency and allows the transducers to have high stability with minimal hysteresis during the lifetime of the device.

At JOANNEUM RESEARCH a piezoelectric sensor technology (PyzoFlex®) has been developed during the past couple of years. The PyzoFlex®-technology consist of fully (screen- and/or R2R) printed piezo- /pyroelectric polymer sensors on flexible substrates (PET, paper, textiles). New opportunities for innovative use cases in the area of printed electronics open up due to the fact that these sensors are (i) energy self-sufficient, (ii) scalable, (iii) light weight and (iv) show very high sensitivity to changes in temperature, pressure and deformation.

Electrochemical gas sensors are powerless selective and reliable Gas Sensors.

The existing Technology does not allow producing them inexpensive or controlling life time.

New innovation bring Gas Sensors like the battery evolution from liquid to polymer Technology.

Printing Sensors allow any form factor, mass production at very attractive production costs.

Authors: A. Fraleoni-Morgera (a,b), C. Bertoni (c,d) , E. Viviani (e)

 

a: Flextronics Laboratory, Dept. of Engineering and Architecture, Univ. Of Trieste - V. Valerio 6/1, 34127 Trieste (Italy)

b:Sincrotrone Trieste SCpA - SS 14, Km 163.5 - Basovizza (Ts), 34149 Italy

c: Sensors And Innovation Laboratory (SAIL), Dept. of Engineering and Architecture, Univ. Of Trieste - V. Valerio 6/1, 34127 Trieste (Italy)

d: Sensors for Applications and Processes, Global Technology Centre (GTC), Electrolux Italia SpA, C.so Lino Zanussi 30, 33080 Porcia (PN), Italy

e: Artificial Perception Laboratories (APL), Dept. of Engineering and Architecture, Univ. Of Trieste - V. Valerio 6/1, 34127 Trieste (Italy)

 

Summary of the presentation

• Organic-based sensors challenges

• Benefits from organic nanostructures in sensing applications and available deposition techniques

• Easy, low-cost and fast deposition of nanostructures over large areas through a novel wet-based technique called ASB-SANS

• Results of preliminary tests carried on ASB-SANS nanostructured P3HT as gas sensing layers

• Conclusions and future work