Preliminary Study On Novel 3D Printed Radio-Frequency Pressure Sensor

Pressure sensors are exploited in a wide range of applications, from industry to healthcare. In the state of the art, pressure sensors convert mechanical energy into electric energy and often they may result difficult to realize. However, recent advances in Additive Manufacturing (AM) allows to create customized low-cost devices in short time. Here we present an initial study for the realization of a pressure sensor based on radio-frequency, consisting of a flexible substrate and a single antenna. Different loads are placed upon the proposed system, in order to measure the correspondent changes in the reflection coefficient of the antenna. Two different substrates are realized with different printing settings. Preliminary measurements show that when the load is increased, the resonant frequency of the antenna is shifted to lower values. Some considerations about the relation between printing parameters (infill density and infill pattern) and substrate deformation are also given.