Simulation And Electrical Characterization Of A Novel 2D-Printed Incontinence Sensor With Conductive Polymer PEDOT:PSS For Medical Applications

Due to the growing numbers of elderly people in the world, who suffer from incontinence and are in the need of care, technologies are necessary to increase the effectiveness of nursing staff and enhance the hygiene for humans to improve life quality. For this reason a low cost humidity sensor system printed onto the substrate of a diaper with the novel organic conductive ink PEDOT:PSS (Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): Poly(styrene sulfonate)) was developed in previous work [1]. The novel material PEDOT: PSS is still expensive because of rare use in research and market demand. Therefore a way for optimization of the sensor is aimed to print the sensor with less material, but at the same time with no loss of sensitivity. With this purpose, two theoretical models are developed. An analytic model with geometrical based calculations and a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation model, for deeper understanding of electric field effects with focus on the total capacitance of the sensor. To verify these theoretical models a characterization measurement of manufactured samples of previous work [1] is made, to obtain a comparison between every experimental method. For the theoretical models the necessary material parameters are characterized.