Fully inkjet printed SnO2 gas sensor on plastic substrate

Abstract

A tin dioxide (SnO 2) sensor was fabricated by inkjet printing onto polyimide foil. Gold electrodes and heater were printed on each side of the substrate. A SnO 2 based ink was developed by sol-gel method and jetted onto the electrodes. A final annealing at 400°C compatible with the polymeric transducers allowed to synthetize the SnO 2 sensing film. Electrical measurements were carried out to characterize the response of the fully printed sensors under oxidizing and reducing gases. The device was heated up at a temperature between 200 and 300°C using the integrated heater. The proper operation of the full printed metal-oxide gas sensors was validated under exposure to carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, in dry and wet air.

Synthesis and Inkjet Printing of SnO2 Ink on a Flexible Substrate for Gas Sensor Application

“…The first peak at 90 °C corresponds to the removal of the weakly bound acetate groups and the second one at 200 °C corresponds to the removal of the ethoxy bounds that are linked chemically to the tin metal. Finally, an exothermic peak at 320 °C observed on DSC curve is associated with the formation of stable SnO2 [8].…”

Aerosol Jet Printing of Miniaturized, Low Power Flexible Micro-Hotplates

“…Printing is preferred on foils for its simple and cost-effective manufacturing compared to state of the art photolithography and etching techniques. Silver based inks are usually practiced for printing microhotplates on flexible substrates [2,6], however, they have serious issues of oxidation and non-stability under high temperatures. Printing of a stable metal such as gold (Au) has been considered to allow better stability at variant conditions.…”

“…Limited work has been reported on printed gold micro-hotplates on flexible substrates such as polyimide (PI). One such approach was based on an inkjet printed heater on the backside of a 50 μm-thick substrate with an effective area larger than 2 mm 2 [2,6]. This increases significantly the power consμmption desired to be as minimμm as possible for applications in miniaturized portable devices [6].…”

“…One such approach was based on an inkjet printed heater on the backside of a 50 μm-thick substrate with an effective area larger than 2 mm 2 [2,6]. This increases significantly the power consμmption desired to be as minimμm as possible for applications in miniaturized portable devices [6]. Therefore, focus in this research is on minimizing the dimensions of the hotplates by reducing the effective area as well as the substrate thickness, targeting a minimμm power consμmption for the printed micro-hotplates.…”

Layer by Layer Deposition of Colloidal SnO2 Nano Particles

“…Recently, the complete processing of a SnO2-based sensor on a flexible substrate has been shown [1] along with notable advances in the control of material composition using e.g., electrospinning [2], quantum dots, and nanowires has been achieved. While intense research efforts in all of these areas are underway the use of wet-chemistry synthesized metal oxide particles in a colloidal dispersion in combination with inkjet printing offers distinct advantages because that offers a way to control most of the influencing parameter to a high degree [3].…”