Ink-jet printed colorimetric gas sensors on plastic foil

An all polymeric colorimetric gas sensor with its associated electronics for ammonia (NH(3)) detection targeting low-cost and low-power applications is presented. The gas sensitive layer was inkjet printed on a plastic foil. The use of the foil directly as optical waveguide simplified the fabrication, made the device more cost effective and compatible with large scale fabrication techniques, such as roll to roll processes. Concentrations of 500 ppb of NH(3) in nitrogen with 50% of RH were measured with a power consumption of about 868 mu W in an optical pulsed mode of operation. Such sensors foresee applications in the field of wireless systems, for environmental and safety monitoring. The fabrication of the planar sensor was based on low temperature processing. The waveguide was made of PEN or PET foil and covered with an ammonia sensitive layer deposited by inkjet printing, which offered a proper and localized deposition of the film. The influence of the substrate temperature and its surface pretreatment were investigated to achieve the optimum deposition parameters for the printed fluid. To improve the light coupling from the light source (LED) to the detectors (photodiodes), polymeric micro-mirrors were patterned in an epoxy resin. With the printing of the colorimetric film and additive patterning of polymeric micro-mirrors on plastic foil, a major step was achieved towards the implementation of full plastic selective gas sensors. The combination with printed OLED and PPD would further lead to an integrated all polymeric optical transducer on plastic foil fully compatible with printed electronics processes.