Development of a low cost plotter for rapid prototyping of printed electronic elements

• Main Author: Toh, Kai Bin
• Other Authors: Pui Tze Sian
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/78379
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Paper-based biosensor is popular in both academia and the industry due to its versatility, low cost, high abundance. Hence, diagnostic devices made of paper-based biosensor are usually cheap, flexible, portable and easy to use. This is highly desirable in less developed countries where resources and skilled personal are limited. Further development in this cheap and rapid point of care technology would contribute greatly to better healthcare and living environment. Some of the most common method to fabricate biosensors include screen printing, photolithography and inkjet printing. However, each of them has their own limitations. The project objective is to develop a low cost 2D plotter that is capable of making line drawings on paper using conductive ink pen with the aim of it being used to print electrochemical biosensor on glossy paper in the future. The plotter built has a modular design, allowing us to easily change printhead to accommodate various type of ink. We then compare the plotter with a commercial plotter by getting both plotters to draw the same diagram and compare the drawings. It is found that the plotter is able to draw reasonably well. However, there is a need to improve its precision. We also tested the resistivity of carbon nanotube that would be used to create biosensor subsequently. It was concluded that 32 to 40 layers of carbon nanotube were necessary to obtain a consistent resistivity.