A Differential Capacitive Multi-Material 3D Printed Sensor for Portable Anemometric Applications

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of a novel, fully 3D printable anemometric device, that is suitable for portable, low-power applications. The sensor principle of operation is based on the differential capacitive variation, which is due to the wind pressure on the sensitive area, and an innovative auto-balanced impedance bridge-based approach is employed as a transducer front-end, to detect the capacitive displacement with fast dynamic response, low noise, high sensitivity, and low-power consumption. The sensor is fully implemented by means of printed conductive and regular polylactic acid (PLA) filament able to measure a wind speed up to 127 m/s. Simulation results have shown a sensitivity of 300 mV/kPa that corresponds to a maximum sensitivity of 43 mV/(m/s).