There is an increasing demand for compact, reliable and versatile sensor concepts for pH-level monitoring within several industrial, chemical as well as bio-medical applications. Many pHsensors concepts have been proposed, however, there is still a need for improved sensor solutionswith respect to reliability, durability and miniaturization but also for multiparameter sensing. Here wepresent a conceptual verification, which includes theoretical simulations as well as experimentalevaluation of a fiber optic pH-sensor based on a bio-compatible pH sensitive material not previouslyused in this context. The fiber optic sensor is based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometric technique,where the pH sensitive material is coated on a short, typically 20-25 mm thin core fiber splicedbetween two standard single mode fibers. The working principle of the sensor is simulated by usingCOMSOL Multiphysics. The simulations are used as a guideline for the construction of the sensorsthat have been experimentally evaluated in different liquids with pH ranging from 1.95 to 11.89. The results are promising, showing the potential for the development of bio-compatible fiber optic pH sensor with short response time, high sensitivity and broad measurement range. The developedsensor concept can find future use in many medical- or bio-chemical applications as well as inenvironmental monitoring of large areas. Challenges encountered during the sensor developmentdue to variation in the design parameters are discussed.

Interest in compact, single-frequency fiber amplifier has increased within many scientific and industrial applications. The main challenge is the onset of nonlinear effects, which limit their power scaling. Here we demonstrate a compact, high-power, single-frequency, polarization-maintaining, continous-wave fiber amplifier using only one amplification stage. We developed the fiber amplifier using a master oscillator fiber amplifier architecture, where a low-noise, single-frequency, solid-state laser operating at 1064 nm was used as a seed source. We evaluated the amplifier's performance by using several state-of-the-art, small-core, Ytterbium (yb)-doped fibers, as well as an in-house-made, highly Yb-doped fiber. An output power of 82 W was achieved with no sign of stimulated Brillouin scattering. A good beam quality and a polarization extinction ratio (PER) of > 25 dB were achieved. The compact fiber amplifier can be a competitive alternative to multi stage designed fiber amplifiers.

Environmental monitoring of land, water and air, is an area receiving greater attention because of human health and safety concerns. Monitoring the type of pollution and concentration levels is vital, so that appropriate contingency plans can be determined. To effectively monitor the environment, there is a need for new sensors and sensor systems that suits these type of measurements. However, the diversity of sensors suitable for low, battery powered- and large area sensor systems are limited. We have manufactured and characterized a flexible pH sensor using laser processing and blade coating techniques that is able to measure pH between 2.94 and 11.80. The sensor consists of an interdigital capacitance with a pH sensitive hydrogel coating. Thin sensors can reach 95% of their final value value within 3 min, and are stable after 4 min. Good repeatability was achieved in regard to cycling of the sensor with different pH and multiple measurements from dry state. We have also studied the relation between an interdigital capacitance penetration depth and hydrogels expansion. We believe that our passive sensor is suitable to be used in low power and large area sensor networks.

Development of cost-effective and environmentally friendly manufacturing methods will enable important advances for the production of large-scale flexible electronics. Laser processing has shown to be a promising candidate that offers a fast and non-destructive way to produce highly conductive patterns on flexible substrates such as plastics. However, an emerging option with a lower environmental impact is instead the use of cellulose-based flexible substrates, such as paper. In this work we investigate the use of laser sintering of silver nanoparticle inks, which were inkjet-printed on three different types of paper. Patterns with a high conductivity could be manufactured where a special care was taken to prevent the substrates from damage by the intense laser light. We found that the best results was obtained for a photopaper, with a conductivity of 1.63 107 S/m corresponding to nearly 26% of the bulk silver conductivity. In addition, we demonstrate laser sintering to fabricate a fully functional near field communication tag printed on a photopaper. Our results can have an important bearing for the development of cost-effective and environmentally friendly production methods for flexible electronics on a large scale. 

The ability of acryl-terminated oligo(beta-amino esters) (AOBAE) to be coated on fibers and printed electronics without solvents and to be cross-linked to a pH-responsive coatings, makes AOBAE-based coatings a potential type of pH-sensor coating. However, there are currently no reports of AOBAEs used as a pH-responsive coating material in sensor applications. Here we present an investigation of the synthesis, curing behavior and swell tests of AOBAEs. AOBAEs were synthesized from reacting an excess of asymmetric diacrylates with piperazine without the use of any solvents. They were then cross-linked to an insoluble network by UV-curing. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to characterize the AOBAEs. NMR was used to clarify the irregular structure of the AOBAE. FTIR was used to monitor the effects of UV-curing dose and air exposure on monomer conversion during curing. An interferometric technique was used to monitor the swelling behavior of the coating in response to pH variations. Swell experiments showed that the AOBAE also responded to pH variations after polymerization. Therefore, AOBAE is an interesting class of material with potential use as a pH responsive coating in optical-and printed electronics pH-sensors applications.

Inkjet-printed metal films are important within the emerging field of printed electronics. For large-scale manufacturing, low-cost flexible substrates and low temperature sintering is desired. Tailored coated substrates are interesting for roll-to-roll fabrication of printed electronics, since a suitable tailoring of the ink-substrate system may reduce, or remove, the need for explicit sintering. Here we utilize specially designed coated papers, containing chloride as an active sintering agent. The built-in sintering agent greatly assists low-temperature sintering of inkjet-printed AgNP films. Further, we examine the effect of variations in coating pore size and precoating type. Interestingly, we find that the sintering is substantially affected by these parameters.

Low-cost solution-processing of highly conductive films is important for the expanding market of printed electronics. For roll-to-roll manufacturing, suitable flexible substrates and compatible postprocessing are essential. Here, custom-developed coated papers are demonstrated to facilitate the inkjet fabrication of high performance copper patterns. The patterns are fabricated in ambient conditions using water-based CuO dispersion and intense pulsed light (IPL) processing. Papers using a porous CaCO3 precoating, combined with an acidic mesoporous absorption coating, improve the effectiveness and reliability of the IPL process. The processing is realizable within 5 ms, using a single pulse of light. A resistivity of 3.1 ± 0.12 μΩ·cm is achieved with 400 μm wide conductors, corresponding to more than 50% of the conductivity of bulk copper. This is higher than previously reported results for IPL-processed copper.

Printed electronics is a rapidly developing field where many components can already be manufactured on flexible substrates by printing or by other high speed manufacturing methods. However, the functionality of even the most inexpensive microcontroller or other integrated circuit is, at the present time and for the foreseeable future, out of reach by means of fully printed components. Therefore, it is of interest to investigate hybrid printed electronics, where regular electrical components are mounted on flexible substrates to achieve high functionality at a low cost. Moreover, the use of paper as a substrate for printed electronics is of growing interest because it is an environmentally friendly and renewable material and is, additionally, the main material used for many packages in which electronics functionalities could be integrated. One of the challenges for such hybrid printed electronics is the mounting of the components and the interconnection between layers on flexible substrates with printed conductive tracks that should provide as low a resistance as possible while still being able to be used in a high speed manufacturing process. In this article, several conductive adhesives are evaluated as well as soldering for mounting surface mounted components on a paper circuit board with inkjet printed tracks and, in addition, a double sided Arduino compatible circuit board is manufactured and programmed.

Sensing pH in blood with an silica multimode optical fiber. This sensor is based on evanescent wave absorption and measures the change of the refractive index and absorption in a cladding made of a biocompatible Polymer. In contrast to many existing fiber optical sensors which are based upon different dyes or florescent material to sense the pH, here presents a solution where a part of the cladding is replaced with a Poly (β-amino ester) made of 1.4-Butanediol diacrylate, Piperazine, and Trimethylolpropane Triacrylate. Piperazine has the feature of changing its volume by swelling or shrinking in response to the pH level. This paper utilizes this dimension effect and measure the refractive index and the absorption of the cladding in respect to different pH-levels. The alteration of refractive index also causes a change in the absorption and therefore the output power changes as a function of the pH level. The sensor is sensitive to pH in a wide spectral range and light absorbency can be observed for wavelengths ranging from UV to far IR. © 2014 SPIE.

In this paper an ink-jet printed write once read many (WORM) resistive memory fabricated on paper substrate is presented. The memory elements are programmed for different resistance states by printing triethylene glycol monoethyl ether on the substrate before the actual memory element is printed using silver nano particle ink. The resistance is thus able to be set to a broad range of values without changing the geometry of the elements. A memory card consisting of 16 elements is manufactured for which the elements are each programmed to one of four defined logic levels, providing a total of 4294 967 296 unique possible combinations. Using a readout circuit, originally developed for resistive sensors to avoid crosstalk between elements, a memory card reader is manufactured that is able to read the values of the memory card and transfer the data to a PC. Such printed memory cards can be used in various applications.