Joaquín Castán and Susana Otero, AIMPLAS11.09.18
In the field of traditional electronics, sensorics and the development of devices sensitive to different variables such as temperature, moisture or pressure, are very relevant and an interesting field of work. Sensors are especially important in the industrial sector, since its implementation is useful both for equipment manufacturing, for measuring variables and monitoring systems. Nevertheless, the industrial sector is not the only one demanding sensors. Sensors are also needed in the medical industry to measure glucose, cholesterol, etc. and in the electronics industry to develop new wearables for measuring the heart rate, the body heat, etc.
According to the last market research published by Technavio, the global industrial wireless sensors market is foreseen to grow US$3.48 billion by 2021, with a year-on-year growth rate of over 11% during the forecast period.
Industrial wireless sensors can be classified according to products into flow sensors, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, gas sensors and others (proximity, level, position, bio, speed, and vibration sensors).
Wireless flow sensors
Flow sensors are devices used for measuring directly or indirectly the flow rate of a liquid or fluid. They can be used to measure gas, liquid and vapor accurately. These flow sensors are broadly used in the oil, gas, chemical and petrochemical industries and in food and drink. “Wireless flow sensors occupy a majority 45% of the global industrial wireless sensors market. Since these sensors are strong and reliable, they can be used in day-to-day industrial applications, which is driving their high adoption rates,” explains Raghav Bharadwaj Shivaswamy, lead analyst at Technavio for automation research.
Wireless temperature sensors
Wireless temperature sensors are mainly used for system monitoring tasks such as control, protection and calibration. These sensors provide extremely precise and reproducible results, with no compensation or calibration circuits. The chemical and petrochemical, oil and gas, the energy generation, food and drink, health, automotive and HVAC industries are the main final users of this market segment. The need to comply with the government regulations on environment and safety is expected to boost the market growth.
Wireless gas sensors
Gas detection technologies based on laser are the most used technologies in gas sensors and are being broadly adopted by oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food and drink and building automation industries. According to Shivaswamy from Technavio: “Gas sensors are widely used in industrial operations to detect the concentration of harmful gases that are released into the environment. Wireless gas sensors will quickly increase its market shares, growing at a CAGR of close to 14 % over the forecast period.”
Pressure sensors
Pressure sensors or pressure transducers transform a physical magnitude into an electric one. In this case, they convert a force per unit of surface into a voltage equivalent to the pressure applied. In the upcoming years, sensor networks will allow connecting people with different electronic devices from any place at any time, thus achieving a more secure environment. It is expected to develop a system in which discrete sensors provide the network with the information needed, such as movements.
Electrochemical sensors
Analytical instruments transform biologic processes into electric or optical signals and allow them to be quantified. Electrochemical sensors are used in clinical medicine and in biology and biotechnology research to measure a wide range of physiological and biological variables.
Flexible printed electronics applied to the development of sensors
In order for the different types of sensors to have an extended use, they must be able to be produced on a large scale and to achieve competitive costs. However, the existing sensors are very expensive, and they are often not appropriate for network manufacturing. Moreover, their structures make it difficult to increase the size of the sensor’s matrix.
On the other hand, the current silicon-based sensors are manufactured by complex and expensive processes that consume a huge number of resources in which hundreds of materials’ deposition, die-cutting and material removal phases are involved, as shown in Graph 3. Thus, the production of just one batch of products involves weeks of work, with extremely high associated costs.
Furthermore, it results mostly in rigid products with no capacity of being implemented in light, flexible or complex-shaped products.
The high manufacturing costs of sensors and the dependence of silicon on conventional electronics significantly restrict new developments in different areas and applications in which sensorization is integrated and add other factors such as costs, volume, weight and rigidity. To address the technical limitations appearing both in the current sensors manufacturing technology and in the final devices obtained, the progress achieved in printed and flexible electronics suggests that it could be a viable alternative for obtaining certain sensor devices.
Unlike the technologies used in conventional electronics, flexible printed electronics allows the development of large electronic components with a large volume of production, and in recent years, it is having interesting advances in different devices such as RFID antennas, batteries or TFTs (Thin Film Transistors), among others.
Flexible printed electronics is an innovative approach to sensor manufacturing. However, the use of printing technologies is not entirely new in sensor manufacturing, since electrochemical sensors have been manufactured by screen printing for years. Albeit for the last years, advances in printing technologies and the development of new functional materials in the form of fluids have allowed the development of new applications in the field of sensor technology to develop large sensors, and with a large volume of production by means of technologies such as screen printing, flexography, rotogravure, inkjet or a combination of them.
Printing technologies allow the manufacture of sensors on different substrates, including flexible substrates such as plastics, paper or polymers similar to rubber, offering a high mechanical elasticity.
In this context, printed sensors, which are manufactured by placing functional solutions or inks on flexible substrates, are gaining importance in the global sensor market. The low manufacturing cost, the simple printing process and the wide availability of materials for their manufacture make flexible printed sensors really interesting in different detection and sensoring applications. By replacing amorphous silicon technologies with organic electronics, sensor manufacturers are expected to improve their cost competitiveness and to allow developing new lighter but stronger portable sensors.
Printed biosensors and piezoresistive sensors have reached a considerable demand over the years and they are now mature product markets. Meanwhile, printed photodetectors and gas and temperature sensors are starting to gain a greater acceptance in a wide range of end-use markets. It is also expected that printed piezoelectric sensors and printed capacitive sensors and the organic sensors associated such as hybrid-organic CMOS image sensors and organic X-ray sensors experience a constant growth. Finally, although the printed humidity sensors’ market is a very small market, it is expected to grow considerably in the coming years.
Flexible printed sensors market
The growth of solutions and sensor systems comes from the growing demand for applications based on an interconnected world by the Internet of Things (IoT), by Human-Machine Interface connection solutions, by the increase in the number of applications and connections in cars and in fields such as health, childcare and old age and industry.
As indicated by Global Industry Analysts in its new market research report on printed and flexible sensors, Europe represents the best market at a global level, followed by the USA. The Asia-Pacific market ranks as the fastest-growing market with a CAGR of 6.6% during the analysis period. The growth in this region is boosted by the large demand of consumer, automotive and sanitary electronics based on sensors; the rapid industrialization in countries such as India and China; and the increasing diabetic population and its subsequent growing demand for printed
glucose sensors.
The global printed and flexible sensors’ market is expected to reach USD $9.70 million by 2020, boosted by the growing demand for printed electronic devices, in particular in the medicine and health, industrial electronics and consumer electronics sectors. Printed, flexible and organic electronic sensors can offer flexibility, larger scope, lower cost, lower power and better service in comparison with conventional sensors. These characteristics will allow them to grow in a market of $244 million in wearables, according to Lux Research.
Joaquín Castán is a researcher in the Functional Printing and Coatings Department of AIMPLAS. A chemical engineer, Castán has two years of professional experience in the Aragon Institute of Technology (ITAINNOVA), where he developed his activity in the Materials Department, working with composite and polymeric materials. He also has five years of experience in a technology center, in the development and research of coatings and functional printing for different industrial sectors. Castán has been with AIMPLAS since 2017, where he works on the formulation and characterization of inks, development of printed electronic devices and indicators to monitor the quality of packaged products.
Susana Otero is head of the Functional Printing and Coatings Department of AIMPLAS. She has more than 10 years of experience in pre-printing and printing process control, implementation of graphic standards and color management. Otero has represented the Technical Secretariat of the National Advanced Printing Technology Platform 3NEO for more than five years. She has actively participated in the AENOR 54 committee and ISO 130 committee for three years and collaborates with other national and international research centers in European projects to add value to printed products. She has stayed in research centers relevant to the graphic industry such as Fogra in Germany and Ugra in Switzerland.
The Functional Printing and Coatings department of AIMPLAS can be your technological partner to transform rigid electronic components into flexible, thin-layered devices that can adapt to different surfaces and geometries. For more information, please contact info@aimplas.es.
According to the last market research published by Technavio, the global industrial wireless sensors market is foreseen to grow US$3.48 billion by 2021, with a year-on-year growth rate of over 11% during the forecast period.
Industrial wireless sensors can be classified according to products into flow sensors, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, gas sensors and others (proximity, level, position, bio, speed, and vibration sensors).
Wireless flow sensors
Flow sensors are devices used for measuring directly or indirectly the flow rate of a liquid or fluid. They can be used to measure gas, liquid and vapor accurately. These flow sensors are broadly used in the oil, gas, chemical and petrochemical industries and in food and drink. “Wireless flow sensors occupy a majority 45% of the global industrial wireless sensors market. Since these sensors are strong and reliable, they can be used in day-to-day industrial applications, which is driving their high adoption rates,” explains Raghav Bharadwaj Shivaswamy, lead analyst at Technavio for automation research.
Wireless temperature sensors
Wireless temperature sensors are mainly used for system monitoring tasks such as control, protection and calibration. These sensors provide extremely precise and reproducible results, with no compensation or calibration circuits. The chemical and petrochemical, oil and gas, the energy generation, food and drink, health, automotive and HVAC industries are the main final users of this market segment. The need to comply with the government regulations on environment and safety is expected to boost the market growth.
Wireless gas sensors
Gas detection technologies based on laser are the most used technologies in gas sensors and are being broadly adopted by oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food and drink and building automation industries. According to Shivaswamy from Technavio: “Gas sensors are widely used in industrial operations to detect the concentration of harmful gases that are released into the environment. Wireless gas sensors will quickly increase its market shares, growing at a CAGR of close to 14 % over the forecast period.”
Pressure sensors
Pressure sensors or pressure transducers transform a physical magnitude into an electric one. In this case, they convert a force per unit of surface into a voltage equivalent to the pressure applied. In the upcoming years, sensor networks will allow connecting people with different electronic devices from any place at any time, thus achieving a more secure environment. It is expected to develop a system in which discrete sensors provide the network with the information needed, such as movements.
Electrochemical sensors
Analytical instruments transform biologic processes into electric or optical signals and allow them to be quantified. Electrochemical sensors are used in clinical medicine and in biology and biotechnology research to measure a wide range of physiological and biological variables.
Flexible printed electronics applied to the development of sensors
In order for the different types of sensors to have an extended use, they must be able to be produced on a large scale and to achieve competitive costs. However, the existing sensors are very expensive, and they are often not appropriate for network manufacturing. Moreover, their structures make it difficult to increase the size of the sensor’s matrix.
On the other hand, the current silicon-based sensors are manufactured by complex and expensive processes that consume a huge number of resources in which hundreds of materials’ deposition, die-cutting and material removal phases are involved, as shown in Graph 3. Thus, the production of just one batch of products involves weeks of work, with extremely high associated costs.
Furthermore, it results mostly in rigid products with no capacity of being implemented in light, flexible or complex-shaped products.
The high manufacturing costs of sensors and the dependence of silicon on conventional electronics significantly restrict new developments in different areas and applications in which sensorization is integrated and add other factors such as costs, volume, weight and rigidity. To address the technical limitations appearing both in the current sensors manufacturing technology and in the final devices obtained, the progress achieved in printed and flexible electronics suggests that it could be a viable alternative for obtaining certain sensor devices.
Unlike the technologies used in conventional electronics, flexible printed electronics allows the development of large electronic components with a large volume of production, and in recent years, it is having interesting advances in different devices such as RFID antennas, batteries or TFTs (Thin Film Transistors), among others.
Flexible printed electronics is an innovative approach to sensor manufacturing. However, the use of printing technologies is not entirely new in sensor manufacturing, since electrochemical sensors have been manufactured by screen printing for years. Albeit for the last years, advances in printing technologies and the development of new functional materials in the form of fluids have allowed the development of new applications in the field of sensor technology to develop large sensors, and with a large volume of production by means of technologies such as screen printing, flexography, rotogravure, inkjet or a combination of them.
Printing technologies allow the manufacture of sensors on different substrates, including flexible substrates such as plastics, paper or polymers similar to rubber, offering a high mechanical elasticity.
In this context, printed sensors, which are manufactured by placing functional solutions or inks on flexible substrates, are gaining importance in the global sensor market. The low manufacturing cost, the simple printing process and the wide availability of materials for their manufacture make flexible printed sensors really interesting in different detection and sensoring applications. By replacing amorphous silicon technologies with organic electronics, sensor manufacturers are expected to improve their cost competitiveness and to allow developing new lighter but stronger portable sensors.
Printed biosensors and piezoresistive sensors have reached a considerable demand over the years and they are now mature product markets. Meanwhile, printed photodetectors and gas and temperature sensors are starting to gain a greater acceptance in a wide range of end-use markets. It is also expected that printed piezoelectric sensors and printed capacitive sensors and the organic sensors associated such as hybrid-organic CMOS image sensors and organic X-ray sensors experience a constant growth. Finally, although the printed humidity sensors’ market is a very small market, it is expected to grow considerably in the coming years.
Flexible printed sensors market
The growth of solutions and sensor systems comes from the growing demand for applications based on an interconnected world by the Internet of Things (IoT), by Human-Machine Interface connection solutions, by the increase in the number of applications and connections in cars and in fields such as health, childcare and old age and industry.
As indicated by Global Industry Analysts in its new market research report on printed and flexible sensors, Europe represents the best market at a global level, followed by the USA. The Asia-Pacific market ranks as the fastest-growing market with a CAGR of 6.6% during the analysis period. The growth in this region is boosted by the large demand of consumer, automotive and sanitary electronics based on sensors; the rapid industrialization in countries such as India and China; and the increasing diabetic population and its subsequent growing demand for printed
glucose sensors.
The global printed and flexible sensors’ market is expected to reach USD $9.70 million by 2020, boosted by the growing demand for printed electronic devices, in particular in the medicine and health, industrial electronics and consumer electronics sectors. Printed, flexible and organic electronic sensors can offer flexibility, larger scope, lower cost, lower power and better service in comparison with conventional sensors. These characteristics will allow them to grow in a market of $244 million in wearables, according to Lux Research.
Joaquín Castán is a researcher in the Functional Printing and Coatings Department of AIMPLAS. A chemical engineer, Castán has two years of professional experience in the Aragon Institute of Technology (ITAINNOVA), where he developed his activity in the Materials Department, working with composite and polymeric materials. He also has five years of experience in a technology center, in the development and research of coatings and functional printing for different industrial sectors. Castán has been with AIMPLAS since 2017, where he works on the formulation and characterization of inks, development of printed electronic devices and indicators to monitor the quality of packaged products.
Susana Otero is head of the Functional Printing and Coatings Department of AIMPLAS. She has more than 10 years of experience in pre-printing and printing process control, implementation of graphic standards and color management. Otero has represented the Technical Secretariat of the National Advanced Printing Technology Platform 3NEO for more than five years. She has actively participated in the AENOR 54 committee and ISO 130 committee for three years and collaborates with other national and international research centers in European projects to add value to printed products. She has stayed in research centers relevant to the graphic industry such as Fogra in Germany and Ugra in Switzerland.
The Functional Printing and Coatings department of AIMPLAS can be your technological partner to transform rigid electronic components into flexible, thin-layered devices that can adapt to different surfaces and geometries. For more information, please contact info@aimplas.es.
