David Savastano, Editor06.30.10
Sensors are an intriguing opportunity for printed electronics (PE), as the ability to print low-cost sensors would greatly expand the market, both for sensors and PE devices.
The National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR), part of Dublin City University (DCU), certainly sees the possibilities for merging PE and sensors. Its roots date back to the mid-1980s; the NCSR was formally established in 1999 with funding of €12 million from the Higher Education Authority (PRTLI Cycle 1), most of which was for infrastructural development buildings and equipment.
The NCSR hosts more than 250 researchers and several large-scale research initiatives at its state-of-the-art facilities, including the Centre’s for Science Engineering and Technology (CSET's), Biomedical Diagnostics Institute and the CLARITY Centre, the strategic research cluster, Irish Separations Science Cluster and the National Biophotonics and Imaging Platform of Ireland.
As a result of its groundbreaking work, the NCSR is attracting very substantial external funding. To date, this funding has exceeded €54 million. This funding has facilitated large-scale long term collaborations with both national and international academic institutions and a significant number of industrial partners.
According to the NCSR’s Centre manager, Declan Moran, the concept of printing sensors has been very much on the mind of the NCSR for more than a decade.
“The NCSR has engaged in printable sensor research since the mid-1990s,” Moran said. “The main driver behind this was the ability to be able to generate sensors which were low cost, robust, reproducible and that had broad application. The main drivers behind this were the cost reduction and miniaturization from traditional ISEs.”
One key advancement has been the ability to adapt a variety of printing processes for printable sensors.
“Traditionally, printed sensors were fabricated using thick film technology, namely screen printing,” Dr. Tony Killard, a principal investigator in the NCSR specializing in PE, noted. “Although this is still a powerful tool, the range of printing techniques that are now being applied to printed device development has much expanded. The NCSR has taken advantage of this by developing new sensor materials that are amenable to a range of print production methodologies.
“Several years ago, the NCSR began to look for new ways to exploit printed sensor technology and identified the growing field of printed electronics as being a massive growth area that had this potential,” Killard said. “The NCSR became a member of the Organic Electronics Association (OE-A) in 2008 and began to increase the profile of sensors and their potential to widen exploitation of this new technology beyond what was the main focus of large area displays and lighting. The NCSR is already having a major impact. We now lead the sensor roadmapping exercise for the OE-A and have already established successful consortia to develop novel integrated printed electronics technologies.”
That is where the NCSR comes in, as its experience in materials science, environmental monitoring and biomedical diagnostics all can utilize printable sensors.
“The main areas of interest in the NCSR are fundamentals materials science, the emergence of new materials that expand the capabilities of sensing with traditional sensor devices and novel separation sciences,” Moran said. Translational research has also seen a surge in interest in nanomedicine, diagnostics and theranostics where biomedical diagnostics institute provides world-class research into next generation point-of-care devices.
“The key benefits of partnering with the NCSR lie in its multidisciplinary expertise, combining the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and engineering to translate fundamental research into applied commercial products,” Moran added. “The size of the NCSR offers critical mass to partners when looking to gain funding opportunities from truly global funding agencies. To date the NCSR has strategic partnerships with Arizona State University, Georgia Tech, Cornell, VTT in Finland and University of Wollongong in Australia indicating a global reach from NCSR PI's.”
All in all, Moran sees great opportunities ahead for printing low-cost sensors, which will be able to change many aspects of the world we live in.
“With the emergence of low cost, hand held devices, the ability to generate PE sensors affords an opportunity to truly revolutionize the world of sensing,” Killard said. “For example, the integration of a printable sensor into a fully printable diagnostic device including power, display, organic circuitry and a mobile phone communications interface opens up the opportunity to be able to conduct remote on-sight testing in areas previously requiring central laboratory analysis. This will have a profound effect on the way we deliver healthcare.”
The NCSR hosts more than 250 researchers and several large-scale research initiatives at its state-of-the-art facilities, including the Centre’s for Science Engineering and Technology (CSET's), Biomedical Diagnostics Institute and the CLARITY Centre, the strategic research cluster, Irish Separations Science Cluster and the National Biophotonics and Imaging Platform of Ireland.
As a result of its groundbreaking work, the NCSR is attracting very substantial external funding. To date, this funding has exceeded €54 million. This funding has facilitated large-scale long term collaborations with both national and international academic institutions and a significant number of industrial partners.
According to the NCSR’s Centre manager, Declan Moran, the concept of printing sensors has been very much on the mind of the NCSR for more than a decade.
“The NCSR has engaged in printable sensor research since the mid-1990s,” Moran said. “The main driver behind this was the ability to be able to generate sensors which were low cost, robust, reproducible and that had broad application. The main drivers behind this were the cost reduction and miniaturization from traditional ISEs.”
One key advancement has been the ability to adapt a variety of printing processes for printable sensors.
“Several years ago, the NCSR began to look for new ways to exploit printed sensor technology and identified the growing field of printed electronics as being a massive growth area that had this potential,” Killard said. “The NCSR became a member of the Organic Electronics Association (OE-A) in 2008 and began to increase the profile of sensors and their potential to widen exploitation of this new technology beyond what was the main focus of large area displays and lighting. The NCSR is already having a major impact. We now lead the sensor roadmapping exercise for the OE-A and have already established successful consortia to develop novel integrated printed electronics technologies.”
That is where the NCSR comes in, as its experience in materials science, environmental monitoring and biomedical diagnostics all can utilize printable sensors.
“The main areas of interest in the NCSR are fundamentals materials science, the emergence of new materials that expand the capabilities of sensing with traditional sensor devices and novel separation sciences,” Moran said. Translational research has also seen a surge in interest in nanomedicine, diagnostics and theranostics where biomedical diagnostics institute provides world-class research into next generation point-of-care devices.
“The key benefits of partnering with the NCSR lie in its multidisciplinary expertise, combining the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and engineering to translate fundamental research into applied commercial products,” Moran added. “The size of the NCSR offers critical mass to partners when looking to gain funding opportunities from truly global funding agencies. To date the NCSR has strategic partnerships with Arizona State University, Georgia Tech, Cornell, VTT in Finland and University of Wollongong in Australia indicating a global reach from NCSR PI's.”
All in all, Moran sees great opportunities ahead for printing low-cost sensors, which will be able to change many aspects of the world we live in.
“With the emergence of low cost, hand held devices, the ability to generate PE sensors affords an opportunity to truly revolutionize the world of sensing,” Killard said. “For example, the integration of a printable sensor into a fully printable diagnostic device including power, display, organic circuitry and a mobile phone communications interface opens up the opportunity to be able to conduct remote on-sight testing in areas previously requiring central laboratory analysis. This will have a profound effect on the way we deliver healthcare.”