Sensing Everywhere—Printed Ferroelectric Polymer Sensors for Human-Machine Interfaces, Biosignal Monitoring and Large-Area Sensor Networks

In the development of modern society, many aspects of daily life revolve around communication and interaction between us and our environment. In the near future, not only will people and smart machines communicate with each other, but objects themselves will also constantly exchange information with their surroundings, supporting and making our daily lives more secure and convenient. This requires such smart objects to be equipped with sensitive, interactive and communicative components, such as a seamlessly integrated electronic skin (e-skin) on the object surface, which offers distributed sensing of multiple parameters, certain input/output (I/O) and data processing functions. In addition, a lightweight e-skin capable of multimodal biosignal monitoring is also interesting as a wearable, non-obstructive medical device that can detect human vital parameters at the point of care/living. Finally, slim free-format sensors for industrial production and mobility are in high demand. Consequently, sensor technologies for the above application scenarios should (i) be easy to integrate on versatile materials over large areas and 3D formats, (ii) be slim and lightweight, (iv) support multi-parameter sensing with high spatial and temporal resolution, (v) be able to be manufactured using scalable, environmentally friendly and cost-effective methods, (vi) contain small format electronics with wireless data transmission and (vii) have very low energy consumption.
Ferroelectric polymers from the class of PVDF materials are ideally suited for multimodal sensing, as their ferroelectric properties allow them to be used for recording strain, pressure, touch, vibration, temperature, IR radiation and vital parameters. In particular, if fabricated by a scalable technique like screen or inkjet printing, ferroelectric polymer devices can easily be integrated on flexible substrates like plastic foils, paper, textile, leather, rubber, metal foils and, notably, they can convert mechanical in electric energy. This is very important since energy autonomy and conformability are essential elements in the next generation of wearable and flexible electronics.
In the talk I will summarize the state of the art of flexible ferroelectric polymer devices with respect to materials, processing and applications¹ and will then present recent developments of our PVDF-TrFE based PyzoFlex® technology with novel material combinations, innovative integration concepts and more sophisticated demonstrators ^2-5.
1. B. Stadlober et al., Chem. Soc. Rev., 48 (2019) 1787-1825
2. A. Petritz et al., Nat. Comm. (2021), 12: 2399, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22663-6
3. E. Karner-Petritz et al., Adv. Electron. Mater. (2023), 10.1002/aelm.202201333
4. M. Fattori et al., Nature Electronics 5 (2022), 289–299
5. A. Alvarez Rueda et al., Sensors 23, 603 (2023), https://doi.org/10.3390/s23020603