Fabrication of ZnSnO3 based humidity sensor onto arbitrary substrates by micro-Nano scale transfer printing

A flexible humidity sensor has been fabricated by a transfer printing technique. The device is fabricated by spin coating a composite of an equal (1:1) wt% ink of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) and zinc-stannate (ZnSnO3) on a water soluble substrate (WSS), screen printing silver interdigitated (IDT) electrodes and spin coating low modulus Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) on top of the IDTs. The water soluble substrate is then dissolved and removed and the device is laminated onto an arbitrary substrate in an inverted configuration. The device performance has been tested by transferring onto curved plastic substrates with different radii of curvature Rc. The devices show impedance change from ∼18 MΩ to ∼1.8 MΩ from 0% to 90% relative humidity (RH) with a negligible variation in results, over different bending radii. The transfer printing technique reported here would provide efficient and reliable route for the fabrication of flexible electronics on nonconventional substrates in environmental sensing, soft robotics, and artificial skin etc.