Aerosol Jet Printing shows a lot of promise for the future of printable electronics. It is compatible with a wide range of materials and can be printed on nearly any type of surface features because of its 3–5 mm standoff distance from the substrate. However, nearly all materials printed require some form of post-sintering processing to reduce the electrical resistance. Many companies develop these materials, but only provide a narrow range of post processing results to demonstrate the achievable conductivity values. In this paper, a design of experiment (DOE) is presented that demonstrates a way to characterize any material for Aerosol Jet Printing during and after post sintering processing by measuring conductivity with different time and temperature values. From these results, a linear regression model can be made to develop an equation that predicts conductivity at a given time-temperature value. This paper applies this method to Clariant Ag ink and sinters silver pads in an oven. A linear regression model is successfully developed that fits the data very well. From this model, an equation is derived to predict the conductivity of the Clariant Ag ink for any time-temperature value. Although only demonstrated with an oven and one type of ink, this method of experimentation and model development can be done with any material and any post processing method.
Enhancing physical human-robot interaction requires the improvement in the tactile perception of physical touch. Robot skin sensors exhibiting piezoresistive behavior can be used in conjunction with collaborative robots. In past work, fabrication of these tactile arrays was done using cleanroom techniques such as spin coating, photolithography, sputtering, wet and dry etching onto flexible polymers. In this paper, we present an addictive, non-cleanroom improved process of depositing PEDOT: PSS, which is the organic polymer responsible for the piezoresistive phenomenon of the robot skin sensor arrays. This publication details the patterning of the robot skin sensor structures and the adaptation of the inkjet printing technology to the fabrication process. This increases the possibility of scaling the production output while reducing the cleanroom fabrication cost and time from an approximately five-hour PEDOT: PSS deposition process to five minutes. Furthermore, the testing of these skin sensor arrays is carried out on a testing station equipped with a force plunger and an integrated circuit designed to provide perception feedback on various force load profiles controlled in an automated process. The results show uniform deposition of the PEDOT: PSS, consistent resistance measurement, and appropriate tactile response across an array of 16 sensors.
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