What does it change for product designers?
A few years ago, when someone asked me about a sensor, I would probably imagine a small electronic component. Something mounted on a PCB, connected by a cable or hidden inside a plastic housing. Nothing particularly exciting. Sensors have been part of our products for decades, and most engineers know very well how to work with them.
Sensing structures on thin polymer films
But printed electronics is starting to change this picture. Today, we can print sensing structures directly onto thin polymer films. We can make them flexible, give them unusual shapes and place them in areas where traditional components would be difficult to install. A sensor no longer needs its own housing or a separate place inside the product. Sometimes, the product’s surface can do the job.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, as usual in manufacturing, the interesting part begins when we try to turn a good idea into a product that someone can actually buy.
Take a pressure sensor, for example. Printing a conductive pattern on a film is relatively straightforward if you have the right equipment and materials. Making a structure that changes its electrical properties under pressure is also possible, although the design and materials must be chosen carefully. But then come the questions. How accurately can we measure that pressure? Will the result be the same after a thousand cycles? What happens when the temperature changes? And can we manufacture five thousand sensors that behave in a similar way?
These are the questions I find much more interesting than another impressive demonstration at a technology exhibition. Not because demonstrations are unimportant. Quite the opposite. They show us what might be possible. But between a working prototype and a reliable industrial product, there is usually a lot of engineering work that nobody puts on the exhibition stand.
One of the most interesting opportunities offered by printed electronics is the ability to measure what happens across a larger area, rather than at just one point. Imagine a shoe insole that measures pressure distribution under the foot. Instead of using several separate sensors, we can create an array of sensing elements printed on a flexible substrate. The result can be a thin structure that follows the shape of the foot and provides information about how pressure changes during walking.
Of course, printing such an array is only part of the job. We still need to collect signals from individual sensing points, convert them into useful data and understand what those measurements actually mean. A change in electrical resistance is not automatically an accurate measurement of force. That requires calibration, suitable electronics and, quite often, a fair amount of testing.
Product examples
The same thinking applies to many other products. In an HMI panel, a printed touch sensor can be integrated with a decorative layer. In medical equipment, a flexible sensor may follow the shape of the human body. In industrial applications, sensing structures can be placed on surfaces that would be difficult to equip with conventional components. We can also print structures that respond to temperature, humidity or mechanical deformation.
This gives product designers something valuable: freedom. Instead of asking where a standard sensor will fit, they can start by asking where the measurement is actually needed. Sometimes this can remove mechanical components, reduce thickness or simplify assembly. In other cases, it may allow engineers to develop a product that would be difficult to build using traditional methods.
There is a catch, however. When the sensor becomes part of the surface, the surface becomes part of the sensor.
The choice of substrate, the thickness of printed layers, the adhesive and even the way the product bends can influence the measurement. A pressure sensor printed on PET may behave differently when it is laminated, placed under a protective layer or attached to a curved surface. The electrical design cannot be separated from the mechanical construction.
This changes the way engineers need to work together. Mechanical designers, electronics engineers, material specialists and production teams should be involved from the beginning. Otherwise, we may end up with a sensor that works perfectly on a laboratory table but behaves quite differently inside the final product.
Anyone who has worked with screen printing knows that putting ink on a film is usually the easy part. Getting exactly the same result a thousand times is a different story.
Conductive inks, resistive materials and dielectrics all have their own processing requirements. Layer thickness, curing temperature, printing conditions and registration between layers can affect performance. The sensor also needs reliable electrical connections, protection against environmental conditions and, in many cases, integration with conventional electronics.
The question of durability
And then there is the question of durability. Flexible does not automatically mean resistant to unlimited bending. A sensor that survives a few demonstrations may fail after repeated mechanical stress. Conductive tracks can crack, adhesives may lose their properties and the sensor’s response can change over time. Depending on the application, temperature and humidity may also influence the electrical signal.
None of these problems is particularly surprising to experienced production engineers. We deal with similar challenges every day, even when manufacturing products that have nothing to do with sensors. What makes printed sensing structures more demanding is that small variations in the manufacturing process can directly affect measurement performance.
For this reason, I believe we should be careful when discussing the cost advantages of printed electronics. Yes, printing can be an efficient manufacturing method, especially when producing larger quantities. And yes, integrating several functions into one thin structure may reduce the number of components and assembly operations.
But a cheaper sensor does not necessarily mean a cheaper product.
If every sensor requires individual calibration, if the production yield is low or if the structure needs expensive protective materials, the expected savings may disappear. The complete system cost matters much more than the price of a printed layer.
This includes materials, electronics, assembly, testing and the cost of maintaining stable production.
Does this mean we should stop developing printed sensors? Absolutely not. It simply means we should approach them as engineers rather than as technology enthusiasts.
I also do not expect printed electronics to replace conventional sensors. Traditional technologies offer excellent performance and proven reliability in many applications. Sometimes a standard sensor mounted on a PCB is still the simplest, most accurate and most economical solution. There is no reason to replace it just because printing something on a film looks more modern.
What I find much more promising is combining both technologies. A printed sensing surface connected to conventional electronics can offer the advantages of flexibility and design freedom without giving up established methods of signal processing and communication. Hybrid electronics allows us to choose the best technology for each function rather than trying to print everything.
OE-A Roadmap 2026
This direction is also reflected in the OE-A Roadmap 2026, which identifies integrated smart systems, sensors and hybrid electronics as important areas for the development of flexible and printed electronics. The industry is gradually moving beyond individual functional layers towards complete systems that can be integrated into real products.
There is one more thing worth considering. When we change the shape and location of a sensor, we may also change the way people interact with a product. A control panel no longer needs a visible button in every location where we want to detect touch. A medical device does not always need a rigid component pressing against the body. A machine may be able to detect contact across a larger area rather than at a single point.
These are not necessarily revolutionary changes on their own. But they give designers options they did not have before. And in engineering, having another good option can be more valuable than having another impressive technology.
Perhaps in a few years, engineers will stop asking where to put the sensor. They will start asking which part of the product should become one.
I suspect that will make our work both easier and considerably more complicated.
And, knowing the manufacturing industry, probably a little more interesting as well.
Written by Paweł Czabak, LC Elektronik