Wearable Bandage-Based Strain Sensor for Home Healthcare: Combining 3D Aerosol Jet Printing and Laser Sintering

Flexible and stretchable strain sensors are in great demand for many applications like wearables and home health. This work reports a strain sensor fabricated using aerosol jet printing technology on a commercially available bandage to be used as a low-cost wearable. Laser light is explored to sinter the silver nanoparticle ink on a low-temperature bandage substrate. The laser parameters, their effects on the microstructure of the film, and the resulting sensor performance are systematically investigated. The results showed that the sensor is stretchable and has good sensitivity and stability for 700 cycles of repeated bending.