The cleanroom-free rapid fabrication of a liquid conductivity sensor for surface water quality monitoring

Conductivity is an important issue of water quality detection. Although there are a number of microfluidic liquid conductivity sensors, most of them were difficult to fabricate and required cleanroom facilities, which significantly increased the cost of sensors. Here, we presented a novel liquid conductivity sensor that was built on interdigitated copper electrodes. Microscale sensor electrodes can be fabricated through the modified microfabrication process without any help of cleanroom facilities. In comparison with FEA simulation and commercial conductivity device, measured results showed that the fabricated liquid conductivity sensor was able to measure a wide range of liquids. Considering the ease of fabrication and its low cost, the cleanroom-free fabricated sensors have much potential for water quality monitoring.