• CeNTI – Centre for Nanotechnology

and Smart Materials

João Gomes

jgomes@centi.pt

• Development of Printed Capacitive

Sensors: R&D to Product Engineering

Summary

• CeNTI an overview;

• Main Areas of Application;

• Facilities;

• Printed Capacitive Sensors;

• R&D;

• Up-scaling approach;

• Projects;

• Product Development;

• Final Notes

About CeNTI

High Level Shareholders

CITEVE / CeNTI technology campus

Three Pilars

Functional Materials

& Solutions

Smart Materials

& Systems

Modeling Design & Engineering

Lab to Market

I&D Prototyping Pre-series

co-production

Substrates

Textile

Leather

Paper Ceramics

Wood

Cork

Glass Polymers

Concrete

Main Applications

Automotive & Aeronautics

Architecture & Construction

Health, Protection & Well-being

Facilities

Screen Printing (Sheet and Rotary)

Inkjet Printing LTE thermal evaporation

Gravure

Spray and Dip coating

Slot die and Rotary Screen Lamination& Encapsulation

Sheet/Sample

R2R

Facilities

3DMM Microflex Print Line

- Printed Electronics Line R2R;

- Multi Technology Print line R2R PVD system 500mm

- PML, Metal Evap and PVD with 500mm width

Facilities

Facilities

Materials R&D Lab Polymer Coatings and Compounding

R2R Plasma

R2R Spray and US Coating w/ IV+UV

Curing

Nanoparticle synthesis

Advances Surface Treatment Plant

- Spray, US and Plasma;

- 500mm R2R or S2S (rigid&flexible)

- IV and UV curing stages;

Tri Component Spinning Plant

- 36 filament tricomponent fibres;

- Multi functional yarn spinning;

Facilities

Product Engineering

SMT Technologies

Prototyping

Printed Capacitive Sensors

R&D Approach

Numerical simulation

Design optimization

Processing

Printing

Lamination

Laser Cutting

Vacuum Systems

etc.

Caracterization

Electrical measurement

AFM,profilometry

Optical microscopy

Engineering

Development of systems for acquisition, treatment and transmission of data

R&D Project

•Proof-of-concept;

•Final Prototype;

Process Development

•Process development;

•Product Design;

•Production Cost Assessment

Pre-Series;

•Small Scale Manufacturing;

•Market Test;

•Logistics

Scalability: demonstrator do end-product

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

C/C

0

Liquid Level (%)

Liquid level sensor

0%

100%

Substrate: PET Encapsulant: PET

Liquid: Water (ε=80)

Electric Field Analysis

Capacity vs Liquid Level

Numerical Simulation

Lab & Pilot Processing

10000 100000 1000000

30

35

40

45

C/p

F

f/Hz

water drop

metal object

object (=3)

air

Performance Characterization Materials Characterization

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

2.2

2.4

0 25 50 75 100

C/C

0

Liquid Level (%)

SENSOR A

SENSOR B

SENSOR C

Various substrates (Rigid and Flexible):

Flexible polymeric substrates;

Directly on carbon composite, paper, cork, textiles;

Lab & Pilot Processing

R2R Processing & Hardware Engineering

Rotaryscreen Lamination/encapsulation

Laser Etching and interconnection

Synergy with R2R Vacuum Coating

• Lab-scale research needs to consider

the process requirements given by the

2nd step up-scaling;

• Pilot scale is required to assess the

feasibility of the printing/processing of a

given device and the final product

(assembling and integration step);

• Assessing the viability of intermediate

assembling steps is key for determining

the feasibility of the process as whole.

Engineering

Printed Heating Elements

Printed Actuators for Printed Lighting

Streachable Printed Flexible Sensor

Actuator Flexible matrix

Printed Capacitive Sensors

Projects & Products

Intelligent Multi-reactive textiles Piezoelectric Fibres

Development of new Tri-component piezoelectric fibres for sensor / energy harvesting applications – Processing of Fibre devices

Project Invisible Network

• Development of interactive surfaces through the integration of printed

technologies onto non conventional substrates:

• Directly printed sensor-actuators ( ex: temperature, pressure, gas sensors and biometric);

• Development of embedded and integrated hardware;

• Development of fully interconnected rigid-flexible electronics and mobile device comunication platforms;

SENSE | Development of solution embedded sensing and/or printed electronics integrated on fuel tank.

GOALS | The objective of the work is to develop R&D activities that enhance innovation in

sensorized structures.

OUTPUTS | Technologic demonstrator with integrated sensing multi-monitoring system on composite: structure analysis system fuel level and temperature sensors.

Project SENSE

Performance evaluation

Number of drops

SENSOR B Output Signal

10 0.0% 20 0.1%

30 0.3%

50 0.7%

Insensitivity to liquid drops

0.99

1

1.01

1.02

1.03

1.04

1.05

0 20 40 60 80 100

C/C

0

Liquid Level (%)

SENSOR B

SENSOR C

Sensitivity to liquid with low ε (~3)

Project SENSE

Engineering

Rise Time Rise Time

Measuring rise time and fix the R value, the C is proportional to rise time.

Project SENSE

Sensor Tile

• Ceramic tile with an integrated printed piezoelectric switch: electronic module embedded on the tile structure

• Results: International patent held by Dominó.

• CE certified product

MOON Ceramic

• Application of printed sensoring systems and integrated electronics

• Development of a new series of highly efficient (eco-friendly) discharge system:.

• Product to be commercialized

Final Notes

• An integrated strategy is necessary in order to successfully upscale R&D systems to pilot and production processes:

• Proof-of-concept;

• In house” “market test” production (pre-series)

• Bridge the gap between pre-series and full scale production - Valley of death;

• Focus on integrated sensoring systems:

• Integrated/added functionality;

• Added-value;

• Interconectivity and hardware integration;

• Interactivity and availability of information;

• Moving towards all printed and all-integrated flat film electronics – still a way to go… ;

• Certification and quality control processes need to be developed concurrently with engineering and Up-scaling

processes;

Thank You

www.centi.pt

www.facebook/centinetwork

jgomes@centi.pt