Direct printing of capacitive touch sensors on flexible substrates by additive e-jet printing with silver nanoinks

Abstract

In this paper, techniques of direct printing of capacitive touch sensors on flexible substrates are presented. Capacitive touch sensors were fabricated by using electrohydrodynamic inkjet (E-jet) printing onto flexible substrates. Touch pad sensors can be achieved with optimized design of silver nanoink tracks. An analytical model was developed to predict touch pad capacitance, and experiments were conducted to study the effects of sensor design (e.g., number of electrodes, electrode length, and electrode distance) on the capacitance of printed coplanar capacitance touch sensors. Details of the fabrication techniques were developed to enable rapid prototype flexible sensors with simple structure and good sensitivity. The presented techniques can be used for the on-demand fabrication of different conductive patterns for flexible electronics with high resolution and good transparency.