A novel fabrication process to realise piezoelectric cantilever structures for smart fabric sensor applications

This paper reports a novel process for realising freestanding piezoelectric cantilevers printed on fabric for potential use as a wearable sensor. Piezoelectric cantilever structures were fabricated by screen printing a piezoelectric stack on top of a structural layer that is supported by a sacrificial material during printing. The sacrificial layer was subsequently removed in an oven at 160 °C for 30 minutes which is sufficient to fully release the cantilever beam from the substrate. The samples were polarised by applying an electric field across the piezoelectric stack. Testing on an electromechanical shaker shows that the cantilevers have resonant frequencies at 390 and 260 Hz for beam lengths of 12 and 15 mm, respectively. The beams produced maximum outputs of 38 and 27 mV at an acceleration of 11.76 m/s², respectively.