A new approach for an ultra-thin piezoresistive sensor based on solidified carbon ink film

• DOI: 10.1007/s10853-020-05309-8
• Publication Date: 2020-09-29T21:02:52Z
• Authors: Ying Yi; Ayman Samara; Bo Wang
• Keywords: Gauge factor; Piezoresistive effect; Conductive ink; Strain gauge; Screen printing

Abstract Conventional flexible piezoresistive strain sensors that use conductive particles polymer composites exhibit thick structures with a low sensitivity to external tension. This paper presents cost-effective method fabricate ultra-thin and highly sensitive sensors. In our fabrication steps, carbon ink is mainly composed of black solidified drying process form “paperlike,” film. Without any surface modification techniques, the film directly placed onto liquid-state PDMS then bonded after process. Following rapid prototyping, different performance metrics fabricated sensors, including piezoresistivity, gauge factor, temperature dependency, elastic modulus, repeatability are measured. Specifically, this show significantly improved factor (~26) compared similar by more complicated micro-fabrication methods. The proposed corresponding (~45 μm) sensor prototype may benefit design mass production future wearable biomedical healthcare