Printed electrodes structures as capacitive humidity sensors: A comparison

This work discusses about four planar printed capacitive sensors with different geometrical layouts, fabricated by inkjet printing on a flexible substrate and used as humidity sensors. In particular, we show a comparison among interdigitated electrodes, meandered electrodes, spiral electrodes, and serpentine electrodes in terms of fabrication yields, sensitivities to relative humidity as well as thermal drift taking into account frequency dependencies. In addition, numerical simulations have been performed to further investigate the characteristics of these sensors. All sensors present similar behavior in frequency with humidity. Taking into account sensitivity within the same sensing area, the highest value is achieved by serpentine electrodes, followed by spiral electrodes, interdigitated and meandered electrodes, in this order. The best configuration will be dependent on the specific application and its requirements. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.