Bending Stability Analysis of Flexible Polymer based Temperature Sensor

Temperature sensing on a flexible platform is essential to many healthcare, e-skin, and robotic applications. In this regard, a polymer-based temperature sensor is fabricated where a conductive polymer material i.e. PEDOT:PSS is used as its temperature-sensitive layer on top of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The electrodes are printed with silver ink. To isolate the sensor from environmental noise the sensing layer is encapsulated with epoxy material. After the epoxy encapsulation, the sensitivity increased up to 1.6875 times when compared to without any epoxy encapsulation. Also, the linearity of the response is improved. Without bending the sensor shows a sensitivity of 0.000817 /0C. Further, the fabricated sensor is undergone 150 cycles of both tensile and compressive bending to test its mechanical stability. From the results, it is predicted that some initial bending may stabilize the sensor mechanically to have a less increase in its base resistance.