Water Based PVA Sacrificial Material for Low Temperature MEMS Fabrication and Applications on e-textiles

AbstractA sacrificial-layer approach enables the realisation of free-standing mechanical structures on textiles. This work presents a screen printable water based polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) sacrificial material, which, when printed and dried, provides a stable mechanical support for subsequent printed structural layers. The PVA support layer can be removed in water once all other processes are complete. The sacrificial paste is compatible with most textiles and is environmentally friendly due to a low release of volatile organic compounds (VOC). The process is demonstrated by fabricating a capacitively coupled cantilever on textile using screen printing. The resultant cantilever has a resonant frequency of 145Hz that confirms the PVA sacrificial material has been entirely removed