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Advanced Devices and Materials for Printed Flexible Electronics
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Advanced Devices and Materials for Printed Flexible Electronics

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Electronic Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 7545

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Grigoris Kaltsas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
microSENSES Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of West Attica, 12244 Athens, Greece
Interests: printed electronics; flexible devices; microsystems; MEMs; sensors; embedded systems; microfluidics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Printed electronics have emerged as a key technology used in sensors and various electronic devices since it combines electronics manufacturing with text and graphics printing. This combination allows for the production of high-quality electronics that are thin, flexible, lightweight, highly economical, and environmentally friendly.

The development of these devices is possible through a combination of various advanced polymers with new coating and printing techniques capable of working at low temperatures, compatible with the polymeric substrates. Printing technologies allow for manufacturing on non-planar surfaces otherwise impossible with old-fashioned fabrication techniques.

The rapid development of this field has been stimulated by the continuous evolution of large-scale electronic applications with many applications in flat-panel displays, medical image sensors, electronic paper, etc. Printed technologies are the main platform for flexible electronics, the advancement of which has spanned the past few years, ranging from the development of flexible solar cell arrays and flexible organic light-emitting diode displays to fully flexible electronic devices.

Today, the demand for cost-effective, flexible, and smart products is a decisive factor in the choice of printed electronics manufacturing technologies. In recent years, interest in flexible electronic systems used on non-planar surfaces has grown considerably in areas such as aerospace, automobiles, biomedical, robotics, and health.

Currently, research on printed and flexible electronics faces many issues, including materials, print process, interfacing, and integration. Solutions regarding low-cost and high-volume production problems may vary depending on the application.

This Special Issue seeks papers dealing with the development of novel printed and flexible devices that push the technology further and set new application frames. Moreover, the scope of this issue focuses on the presentation of new advance materials that can be implemented in any aspect of printed and flexible devices (active-functional materials, substrates, sensing, passivation, packaging, etc.).

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Flexible device for applications in wearables, IoT, health, etc.;
  • Flexible lighting and displays;
  • 3D printing electronics in system integration of functional products and solutions;
  • Sensors, biosensors, and e-textiles;
  • Intelligent and smart packaging, safety, and security;
  • Advanced functional materials (carbon nanotubes; encapsulation materials; graphene; OLED display materials; quantum dots; silver; copper; carbon conductive inks; substrates such as PET, PEN, paper, and others; transparent conductive films; etc.);
  • Flexible organic and printed electronics and photonics;
  • Printing processes; and
  • Flexible and printed batteries.

Prof. Dr. Grigoris Kaltsas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • printed flexible electronics
  • advanced functional materials
  • printing processes
  • flexible electronic devices and sensors
  • wearables
  • flexible system development and integration
  • printed systems design and simulation

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 7265 KiB  
Article
Design, Fabrication, and Optimization of a Printed Ag Nanoparticle-Based Flexible Capacitive Sensor for Automotive IVI Bezel Display Applications
by Srinivasan Palanisamy, Muthuramalingam Thangaraj, Khaja Moiduddin, Hisham Alkhalefah, Panagiotis Karmiris-Obratański and Cheng Siong Chin
Sensors 2023, 23(9), 4211; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23094211 - 23 Apr 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1174
Abstract
Since printed capacitive sensors provide better sensing performance, they can be used in automotive bezel applications. It is necessary to fabricate such sensors and apply an optimization approach for choosing the optimal sensor pattern. In the present work, an effort was made to [...] Read more.
Since printed capacitive sensors provide better sensing performance, they can be used in automotive bezel applications. It is necessary to fabricate such sensors and apply an optimization approach for choosing the optimal sensor pattern. In the present work, an effort was made to formulate interdigitated pattern-printed Silver (Ag) electrode flexible sensors and adopt the Taguchi Grey Relational (TGR)-based optimization approach to enhance the flexible sensor’s panel for enhanced automobile infotainment applications. The optimization technique was performed to derive better design considerations and analyze the influence of the sensor’s parameters on change in capacitance when touched and production cost. The fabricated flexible printed sensors can provide better sensing properties. A design pattern which integrates an overlap of 15 mm, an electrode line width of 0.8 mm, and an electrode gap 0.8 mm can produce a higher change in capacitance and achieve a lower weight. The overlap has a greater influence on sensor performance owing to its optimization of spatial interpolation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Devices and Materials for Printed Flexible Electronics)
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15 pages, 7977 KiB  
Article
Study of Single and Multipass f–rGO Inkjet-Printed Structures with Various Concentrations: Electrical and Thermal Evaluation
by Apostolos Apostolakis, Dimitris Barmpakos, Aggelos Pilatis, Vassiliki Belessi, Dimitrios-Nikolaos Pagonis, Fadi Jaber, Konstantinos Aidinis and Grigoris Kaltsas
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 2058; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23042058 - 11 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1585
Abstract
Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is a derivative of graphene, which has been widely used as the conductive pigment of many water-based inks and is recognized as one of the most promising graphene-based materials for large-scale and low-cost production processes. In this work, we [...] Read more.
Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is a derivative of graphene, which has been widely used as the conductive pigment of many water-based inks and is recognized as one of the most promising graphene-based materials for large-scale and low-cost production processes. In this work, we evaluate a custom functionalised reduced graphene oxide ink (f–rGO) via inkjet-printing technology. Test line structures were designed and fabricated by the inkjet printing process using the f–rGO ink on a pretreated polyimide substrate. For the electrical characterisation of these devices, two-point (2P) and four-point (4P) probe measurements were implemented. The results showed a major effect of the number of printed passes on the resulting resistance for all ink concentrations in both 2P and 4P cases. Interesting results can be extracted by comparing the obtained multipass resistance values that results to similar effective concentration with less passes. These measurements can provide the ground to grasp the variation in resistance values due to the different ink concentrations, and printing passes and can provide a useful guide in achieving specific resistance values with adequate precision. Accompanying topography measurements have been conducted with white-light interferometry. Furthermore, thermal characterisation was carried out to evaluate the operation of the devices as temperature sensors and heaters. It has been found that ink concentration and printing passes directly influence the performance of both the temperature sensors and heaters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Devices and Materials for Printed Flexible Electronics)
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14 pages, 3459 KiB  
Article
Design and 3D FEM Analysis of a Flexible Piezoelectric Micromechanical Ultrasonic Transducer Based on Sc-Doped AlN Film
by Qinghua Ren, Junhong Chen, Xin Liu, Songsong Zhang and Yuandong Gu
Sensors 2022, 22(21), 8100; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22218100 - 22 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1896
Abstract
In this paper, a flexible piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) based on Scandium (Sc)-doped Aluminum Nitride (AlN) film was designed and modeled by the three-dimensional finite element method (3D-FEM). The resonant frequency of 218.1 kHz was reported. It was noticeable that a high [...] Read more.
In this paper, a flexible piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) based on Scandium (Sc)-doped Aluminum Nitride (AlN) film was designed and modeled by the three-dimensional finite element method (3D-FEM). The resonant frequency of 218.1 kHz was reported. It was noticeable that a high effective electromechanical coupling coefficient (k2eff) of 1.45% was obtained when a combination of a flexible PI and a thin Si layer was used as the PMUT supporting structure layer. Compared with a pure Si supporting layer counterpart, the coupling coefficient had been improved by 110.68%. Additionally, the increase of Sc doping concentration in AlN film further enhanced the device electromechanical coupling coefficient and resulted in an improvement for transmitting/receiving sensitivity of the proposed flexible PMUT. When the doping concentration of Sc reached 30%, the emission sensitivity was as large as 1.721 μm/V, which was 2.86 times greater than that of conventional AlN film-based PMUT. The receiving sensitivity was found to be 2.11 V/KPa, which was as high as 1.23 times the performance of an undoped device. Furthermore, the bending simulation result showed that the proposed flexible PMUT device can maintain a good mechanical stability when the bending radius is greater than 1.5 mm. The simulation of sound field characteristics demonstrated that the flexible PMUT based on AlScN could receive stable sound pressure signals under the bending radius of 1.5 cm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Devices and Materials for Printed Flexible Electronics)
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14 pages, 2879 KiB  
Article
Design, Fabrication, and Testing of a Fully 3D-Printed Pressure Sensor Using a Hybrid Printing Approach
by Akash Verma, Ruben Goos, Jurre De Weerdt, Patrick Pelgrims and Eleonora Ferraris
Sensors 2022, 22(19), 7531; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22197531 - 04 Oct 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2189
Abstract
Pressure sensing is not a new concept and can be applied by using different transduction mechanisms and manufacturing techniques, including printed electronics approaches. However, very limited efforts have been taken to realise pressure sensors fully using additive manufacturing techniques, especially for personalised guide [...] Read more.
Pressure sensing is not a new concept and can be applied by using different transduction mechanisms and manufacturing techniques, including printed electronics approaches. However, very limited efforts have been taken to realise pressure sensors fully using additive manufacturing techniques, especially for personalised guide prosthetics in biomedical applications. In this work, we present a novel, fully printed piezoresistive pressure sensor, which was realised by using Aerosol Jet® Printing (AJP) and Screen Printing. AJ®P was specifically chosen to print silver interconnects on a selective laser sintered (SLS) polyamide board as a customised substrate, while piezoresistive electrodes were manually screen-printed on the top of the interconnects as the sensing layer. The sensor was electromechanically tested, and its response was registered upon the application of given signals, in terms of sensitivity, hysteresis, reproducibility, and time drift. When applying a ramping pressure, the sensor showed two different sensitive regions: (i) a highly sensitive region in the range of 0 to 0.12 MPa with an average sensitivity of 106 Ω/MPa and a low sensitive zone within 0.12 to 1.25 MPa with an average sensitivity of 7.6 Ω/MPa with some indeterminate overlapping regions. Hysteresis was negligible and an electrical resistance deviation of about 14% was observed in time drift experiments. Such performances will satisfy the demands of our application in the biomedical field as a smart prosthetics guide. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Devices and Materials for Printed Flexible Electronics)
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