C7.3 - From Optochemical Sensors for Industrial Processes to Large-Area Printing of Sensor Systems Integrated with Organic Electronics

Event
SENSOR+TEST Conferences 2011
2011-06-07 - 2011-06-09
Nürnberg
Band
Proceedings SENSOR 2011
Chapter
C7 - Sensor Electronic II
Author(s)
S. Köstler, E. Kraker, M. Sagmeister, B. Lamprecht, A. Bizzari, B. Stadlober, B. Ribitsch - JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH, Graz (Austria), T. Abel, T. Mayr - Technical University Graz (Austria)
Pages
490 - 496
DOI
10.5162/sensor11/c7.3
ISBN
978-3-9810993-9-3
Price
free

Abstract

The importance of sensors to determine chemical and biochemical parameters increases steadily in different fields of applications. Fast and reliable sensors are demanded e.g. for process control in industry, biotechnology, patient monitoring and diagnostics, or environmental monitoring Many optical chemosensors rely on luminescence detection where the change in luminescence of an indicator dye doped film in the presence of an analyte (e.g. O2, CO2, pH, …) is detected by an optical system.
We report on an approach to sensor fabrication by the use of printing processes for the deposition and patterning of functional sensor materials. This allows fabrication of active sensor layers, optical waveguides or electrical interconnects. Processes such as offset-, screen-, or inkjet-printing have been applied, depending on the used materials, required feature sizes, throughput, and flexibility. A next step towards mass producible, low-cost sensor systems is the integration of organic (opto)- electronic devices with sensor functionalities. Such devices, based on organic semiconductor materials,can be built on a wide range of different substrates.
We present examples of fluorescence based chemosensor devices realized by integration of sensitive elements with organic photodetectors and organic light emitting diodes (oLEDs) Such sensor-chips are suitable for multianalyte detection and consist of screen printed arrays of luminescent sensor spots surrounded by ring-shaped organic photodiodes and an oLED light source.
Another example, an integrated organic pyroelectric sensor consists of a capacitive sensing unit, an organic transistor for signal processing and an organic display unit. All components are realized by screen printing on flexible substrates. Recent developments in micro- and nanostructuring methods now allow continuous roll-to-roll based fabrication of micro- or even nanostructures on flexible polymer substrates. In combination with printing of functional materials this opens new opportunities for the integration of e.g. microfluidic structures, (opto)electronic devices, and sensors. Thus, for the future one could imagine the fabrication of complete physical, chemical, and even biochemical sensor systems in roll-to-roll based production lines.

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