Fabrication of Piezoelectric Sensor Based Screen-Printing on Flexible Substrate

Abstract

Based on World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death globally; more people has died annually from cardiovascular diseases than from any other cause. It is estimated 17.5 million people died from cardiovascular diseases in 2012, representing 31% of all global death. Of these death, an estimated 7.4 million were due to coronary heart disease and 67 million were due to stroke. Over three quarters of cardiovascular diseases’ deaths take place in low and middle income countries. Traditionally, heart related activity monitoring is done by stethoscope or electrogram and by the monitored result, medical personnel could make a decision based on the outcome. However, with the present of flexible lightweight micro-sensor, it gives the user the convenient of measuring the heart activity without making an appointment for medical checkup, moreover, because of the accessible price of this device, it would help to decrease the cardiovascular diseases, especially among the middle and lower class. This thesis presents the fabrication method of piezoelectric sensor on flexible substrate using screen-printing deposition method so that the fabricated sensor has the ability to conform into curved contour to the shape of significant objects. To achieve the unique properties, the deposited piezo-ceramic sensor is transferred to from high temperature stainless steel to flexible substrate. The fabrication process of sensor will be explained in detail, including: the fabrication process, material analysis and the heart pulse measurement result.