Laser sintering of printed silver thin films for fabrication of strain sensors directly on a structure

Roberto Aga; William Metzger; Laura Davidson; Rachel Aga; Carrie Bartsch; Emily Heckman

doi:10.1117/12.2645127

31 January 2023 Laser sintering of printed silver thin films for fabrication of strain sensors directly on a structure

Roberto Aga, William Metzger, Laura Davidson, Rachel Aga, Carrie Bartsch, Emily Heckman

Proceedings Volume 12477, International Workshop on Thin Films for Electronics, Electro-Optics, Energy and Sensors 2022; 124770R (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2645127
Event: International Workshop on Thin Films for Electronics, Electro-Optics, Energy and Sensors, 2022, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Abstract

Piezoresistive strain sensors, commonly known as resistance strain gauge, have many important applications. In this work, an alternative method to fabricate piezoresistive strain sensors directly on the structure of interest is demonstrated using a particle-free silver ink as the sensing material. The sensing material is first printed as a rectangular film on the structure of interest and a conductive serpentine pattern is generated by selective laser sintering. Only the material exposed to the focused laser is sintered and becomes conductive. The rest is washed-off by 1-dodecene solvent, leaving only the serpentine pattern, which serves as the piezoresistive strain sensor. This alternative method eliminates the need for a carrier or backing substrate and thus improves the mechanical coupling between the sensing material and the structure of interest. It also removes reinforcement effect due to the stiffness of the carrier substrate. Results from electrical characterization revealed that laser sintering power is a crucial parameter that influences fundamental properties of the sensing material such as electrical conductivity and work function. In addition, it was observed that there exists an optimum laser sintering power that results in a maximum gauge factor (GF). For strain sensors, the GF is the most important parameter because it is the measure of sensor sensitivity. When the particle-free silver ink was printed as a serpentine pattern followed by thermal sintering on a hot plate, a lower GF was measured. This shows that the alternative method to fabricate piezoresistive strain sensors is more attractive than printing the serpentine pattern then thermally sintering it.

Citation Download Citation

Roberto Aga, William Metzger, Laura Davidson, Rachel Aga, Carrie Bartsch, and Emily Heckman "Laser sintering of printed silver thin films for fabrication of strain sensors directly on a structure", Proc. SPIE 12477, International Workshop on Thin Films for Electronics, Electro-Optics, Energy and Sensors 2022, 124770R (31 January 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2645127

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KEYWORDS

Sensors

Laser sintering

Silver

Printing

Resistance

Additive manufacturing

Thin films

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