Fully‐Printed Piezoelectric Devices for Flexible Electronics Applications

Abstract

Recent advances in materials and manufacturing processes pave the way for the establishment of piezoelectric materials via printing techniques as flexible sensors, actuators, and generators. Such flexible devices are key building blocks for future advanced robotic skin and conformable medical devices. Herein special focus is given to printed devices for its lightweight, flexibility, and manufacturing by high throughput techniques, offering a disruptive advantage in integration technologies and a wide range of opportunities for industrialization routes, where cost‐effective applications are required. In this Progress Report, the different system parameters are discussed, pinpointing the ones that affect the production of reliable flexible printed piezoelectric devices and limit this technology to achieve higher technological maturity. Focus is made on screen and inkjet printing as fabrication techniques and the well‐established piezoelectric polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride‐co‐trifluoroethylene). Key limiting factors found for the manufacturing of robust scalable all‐printed piezoelectric devices stems mainly from the piezoelectric ink production and processing. Finally, the integration of these materials, via printing technologies, into soft, flexible, and even stretchable substrates is analyzed and insights are gathered on the manufacturing trends to achieve low‐cost production of flexible piezoelectric devices embedded in electronic skin and smart wearables.

Low-Temperature Growth of ZnO Nanowires from Gravure-Printed ZnO Nanoparticle Seed Layers for Flexible Piezoelectric Devices

“…Flexible piezoelectric transducers make the development of innovative devices possible, especially in the energy and sensor fields [1]. Several piezoelectric materials have been studied and integrated into flexible substrates, including organic materials, such as poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) [2] and its co-polymers [3][4][5]; inorganic materials, like lead zirconate titanate (PZT) [6], potassium sodium niobate (KNN) [7], lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT) [8], barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) [9], zinc stannate (ZnSnO 3 ) [10], and bismuth ferrite (BiFeO 3 ) [11]; and semiconductors like zinc oxide (ZnO) in the shape of nanowires (NWs) [12,13].…”

Classifications and Applications of Inkjet Printing Technology: A Review

“…In addition, inkjet printing was used to fabricate respiratory rate stretchable and wearable sensor [265][266], piezoelectric devices [267][268], piezoresistive devices [269][270], and bio-impedance sensors for electrical impedance tomography imaging [271]. Electronic circuits for WFS devices were also printed by inkjet printing [272]- [275].…”

Flexible Platform of Acoustofluidics and Metamaterials with Decoupled Resonant Frequencies

“…The demand for flexible or wearable devices has been increasing rapidly over the past fifty years and there have been many studies addressing the possibilities, applications, and challenges of flexible electronics and integrated systems [1][2][3][4][5]. One of the key applications of the integrated devices is the development of successful and market-ready lab-on-chip (LOC) systems, which aims to bring the whole laboratory process onto a small chip [6][7][8][9][10][11].…”