This letter demonstrates the direct laser printing of polymers on capacitive micromechanical arrays for the realization of a chemical sensor. Each sensor of a single chip array is composed of a thin Si membrane covered by a chemically sensitive polymer layer by means of a direct laser printing technique. We present the high spatial resolution deposition of three different sensitive polymer materials by the liquid phase laser induced forward transfer process. We also show that the optimum sensitivity of the sensors can be achieved by varying the percentage of the coverage of the sensors’ membranes with the polymer.

Direct and high spatial resolution printing of polymer/carbon nanotube (CNT) composite layers has been demonstrated by means of laser induced forward transfer (LIFT). Laser irradiation of composite target materials, such as poly(acrylic acid)/CNT and polyvinylpyrrolidone/CNT, enabled dry deposition of well resolved composite pixels onto glass substrates. The dispersion of the CNT into the deposited composite pixels was investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The LIFT technique was also employed for the accurate deposition of polymer/CNT composite pixels onto aluminum microelectrodes for the fabrication of chemical sensors based on polymer/CNT compounds.