Stability of Interdigitated Microelectrodes of Flexible Chemiresistor Sensors

One of the main challenges in flexible sensors is their performance degradation under different environmental conditions. In this work, high cycle bending fatigue experiments were conducted on a flexible sensor array deposited on a Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) substrate. These sensors were designed and fabricated for detecting different types of chemical vapors. Molecularly-mediated thin film assemblies of gold nanoparticles were deposited on interdigitated microelectrodes with different line widths and spaces. The behavior of the sensor array was studied under repeated mechanical and thermal loadings. This work focuses on studying the failure modes when such devices are subjected to bending fatigue stresses, high temperature, and high humidity environments. The initial results showed that these devices were very stable under mechanical, thermal, and environmental loadings.