3D-printed sensors: Current progress and future challenges

Due to the technological advances, sensors have found a significant role in different aspects of human life. The sensors have been fabricated via various manufacturing processes. Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) has become a common method for fabrication of a wide range of engineering components in many industries. This manufacturing method, commonly known as three-dimensional (3D) printing is based on melting and solidification that leads to production of a component with high dimensional accuracy and smooth surface finish. As precision and elegant techniques are needed in manufacturing of the sensors, AM has been utilized in fabrication of these parts in the last few years. In this study, we summarized and classified applications of different AM methods in manufacturing of sensors. In this context, we briefly reviewed and compared AM techniques and categorized 3D-printed sensors based on their applications. Moreover, fabrication of sensors via AM is explained in details, challenges and future prospect of this manufacturing process are discussed. Investigations on the performed studies proved that higher printing resolution, faster speed and higher efficiency are needed to reach a remarkable advance in the production of 3D-printed sensors. The presented data can be utilized not only for comparison, improvement and optimization of fabrication processes, but also is beneficial for next research in production of highly sensitive sensors.