Low Cost Inkjet Printed Sensors: From Physical to Chemical Sensors

Compared to traditional silicon electronics, printed sensors are cheap and suitable for many low cost and disposable devices. Main printing techniques used are screen printing and inkjet printing. In particular we focus on inkjet printing for the rapid prototyping of sensors. Inkjet is a direct, contactless, printing process, with high spatial resolution and compatibility with many substrates. Successful examples of sensors developed by low cost inkjet printers and metal-based inks are reported by authors. In this paper two examples of low cost inkjet printed sensors are given. The first device is an accelerometer aimed to address typical applications in the field of human and seismic monitoring. Main outcomes of the proposed solution are the low frequency operation and the high sensitivity. The realization of a CO2 gas sensor is also presented. The device makes use of a PEDOT/PSS and Graphene stack and exploits resistive readout.