A Low Cost Inkjet-Printed Mass Sensor Using a Frequency Readout Strategy

The development of low-cost mass sensors is of unique interest for the scientific community due to the wide range of fields requiring these kind of devices. In this paper, a full inkjet-printed mass sensor is proposed. The device is based on a PolyEthylene Terephthalate (PET) cantilever beam (operating in its first natural frequency) where a strain-sensor and a planar coil have been realized by a low-cost InkJet Printing technology to implement the sensing and actuation strategies, respectively. The frequency readout strategy of the sensor presents several advantages, such as the intrinsic robustness against instabilities of the strain sensor, the residual stress of the cantilever beam, the target mass material, and the distance between the permanent magnet and the actuation coil (which changes as a function of the target mass values). However, the frictionless actuation mode represents another shortcoming of the sensor. The paper describes the sensor design, realization, and characterization while investigating its expected behavior by exploiting dedicate models. The working span of the device is 0–0.36 g while its resolution is in the order of 0.001 g, thus addressing a wide range of potential applications requiring very accurate mass measurements within a narrow operating range.