Zinc hybrid sintering for printed transient sensors and wireless electronics

This paper presents a scalable method for fabricating highly conductive transient metallic zinc traces using a synergistic combination of chemical and photonic sintering. The method involves reducing the oxide layer of printed zinc microparticles using an acidic solution, followed by flash lamp annealing to agglomerate the particles into a continuous layer. The resulting sintered zinc patterns exhibit high electrical conductivity, enabling the fabrication of biodegradable sensors and LC circuits, including temperature, strain, and chipless wireless force sensors, and radio-frequency inductive coils for remote powering. The process is compatible with temperature-sensitive substrates, opening new avenues for additive manufacturing of biodegradable electronics and transient implants.

N. Fumeaux, D. Briand