Fabrication, Performances and Aging of Flexible Gas Sensor Platforms

Abstract

Flexible electronics are attracting much interest in gas sensor field on on-site monitoring applications due to their wear ability, lightweight and low-cost production. These performances are fully accomplished by silver-based platforms, but silver corrosion represents the main drawback for the integrity of the devices. In this work, self-heating sensor platforms fabricated by screen- and inkjet-printing techniques have been developed. The reliability of both types of sensors has been tested by long-term lifetime characterization and aging tests. These tests proved that the actuation time is interrupted by silver corrosion phenomena in screen-printing devices and by hot spots in inkjet-printing ones. Appropriate solutions regarding isolation and design improvements achieved not only an increase of lifetime and reliability, but also a decrease of power consumption.