Printed sensors produced via thick-film technology for the use in monitoring applications

Supervision of systems and devices has become more and more important with regard to maintenance requirements and quality management. To achieve these monitoring requirements many different kinds of sensors are needed. At the Fraunhofer IFAM different sensor types have been developed on the basis of thick-film technology and especially by screen-printing. The development of sensor structures spread over a wide field of measurement categories like temperature, humidity, forces, rotational speed or positioning. Here the focus is on thermocouples and magnetic sensor structures for rotational speed and position measurements. Investigations on the functionality of the sensor structures have been performed like correspondence of electrical properties with literature values, comparisons in performance in relation to conventionally produced sensors.