Author(s)

Chang Gyu Lee¹, Bo Seok Kwon¹, Hyun Min Nam¹, Duck Min Seo², Jinwoo Park³, Hyuc Hwangbo⁴, Lee Soon Park², Su Yong Nam^1*

¹Department of Graphic Arts Information Engineering, Pukyong Natioinal University, Busan, Korea.
²School of Materials Science and Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Korea.
³Screen Finetech Solutions Co., Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
⁴FP Co., Ltd., Busan, Korea.

Strain sensors for human-motion detection must offer high stretchability, high sensitivity, fast response, and high recovery speed. In this study, we choose silver paste as a sensing material and use a screen printing method to fabricate the strain sensor based upon an electrical-resistance mechanism. After curing elastomeric polyurethane film with a thickness of 150 μm on PET film, the polyester resin mixed with blocked isocyanate curing agent was coated as a masking layer to reduce the film’s stickiness. The effect of the polyester masking layer upon the silver paste screen printing process was examined using a rolling-ball-tack test, TGA analysis of polyester resins, and cured silver-electrode films. The cost-effective strain sensor fabricated by using silver paste and screen printing processes on the stretchable-polyurethane-substrate film showed high sensitivity and fast response in a strain range of up to 100%.

Stretchable Strain Sensor, Screen Printing, Silver Paste

Lee, C. , Kwon, B. , Nam, H. , Seo, D. , Park, J. , Hwangbo, H. , Park, L. and Nam, S. (2018) Stretchable Strain Sensors Fabricated by Screen Printing of Silver Paste on the Surface Modified Transparent Elastomeric Polyurethane Films. Materials Sciences and Applications, 9, 1008-1020. doi: 10.4236/msa.2018.913073.