Nickel Based Printed Resistance Temperature Detector on Flexible Polyimide Substrate

A fully printed nickel (Ni) based resistance temperature detector (RTD) was successfully developed for temperature sensing applications in the automobile, agricultural and consumer electronic industries. The RTD was fabricated by depositing nickel (Ni) ink on a flexible polyimide (PI) substrate using screen printing process. The capability of the printed RTD was demonstrated by measuring its resistive response for temperatures varying from -60°C to 180 °C, in steps of 20°C and its sensing characteristics such as linearity, sensitivity and repeatability were analyzed. The printed RTD demonstrated a linear response with resistive changes as high as 109% at 180°C, when compared to its base resistance (9.6 k Ω) at -60°C. A temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of 0.45%/°C, with a correlation coefficient of 0.94 was calculated for the printed RTD. In addition, the transient response of the printed RTD demonstrated a good repeatability towards dynamic heating and cooling cycles.