An infrared sensor made from printable electronics can be produced significantly cheaper than current traditional sensors. The sensor is made from organic electronics, which consists of polymers that capture infrared light that is invisible to the human eye. The sensor was developed by researchers at UHasselt, Swansea University and the University of Dresden.
Sensors play an important role in industry, including in quality control. For instance, sensors are able to register more light than the human eye. Among other things, this allows any deviations to be detected faster. Think of a difference in composition of medication or a rotten spot on fruit, but also of deviations that can occur during 3D printing.
Cheaper
Traditional sensors, however, are relatively expensive. This is partly because they use expensive semiconductors, which cannot be mass-produced. This can be done with the organic sensors developed by the researchers. "Our sensors consist of organic electronics, which are printable or paintable polymers that make our basic material much cheaper than the current traditional sensors currently used in industry," say Prof Koen Vandewal and Prof Wouter Maes of IMO-IMOMEC, the integrated research institute of Hasselt University and imec.
Sam Gielen, PhD student at UHasselt, added: "With this research, we are now demonstrating that we can also use cheap polymers for this kind of sensor, which means development and use can be much cheaper."
Sensitivity
Despite being developed from organic material, the new sensor already achieves the same sensitivity as traditional sensors in certain areas. "And we know, thanks to our new research results, how we can quickly improve the areas where we currently fall short with our sensor. We will take those steps in our follow-up research."
The researchers point to the interesting interface between chemistry and physics. "Our chemists develop the molecules that physicists then use to make the sensor. This creates a wildly interesting research field where a lot of new technologies can emerge. This beautiful collaboration will also become the strength of our new master's programme in materiomics at UHasselt, which will start in a few years' time."
Other parties also active
By the way, UHasselt, Swansea University and the University of Dresden are not the only parties working on printable and organic sensors. InnovationLab, which specialises in printed and organic electronics, and printing press manufacturer Heidelberger Druckmaschinen announced in August that they would jointly mass-produce low-cost 3D-printed organic sensors.
InnovationLab and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen see several advantages of printed and organic electronics:
- More flexibility in material use: organic semiconductors and nanomaterials, (transparent) conductive ink and force- and temperature-resistant material, among others, give customers more material choices. These include rigid substrates such as glass, ITO glass and silicone or flexible substrates such as PET, PEN, TPU and flexible glass.
- Printing sensors is a process consisting of just two steps. In the production of traditional sensors, the process consists of nine steps. The less extensive production process saves time and materials, which translates into lower production costs.
- Sensors can be printed on flexible and even biodegradable materials such as textiles. This enables new applications. Consider a foil with integrated printed sensors. This can be wrapped around a car battery to monitor its status in real time. Or placed on a wound to measure its humidity.
More information on the development from UHasselt, Swansea University and the University of Dresden can be found here. Read more about printed and organic electronics from InnovationLab and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen here.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
