Back-Stepping Controller Based Web Tension Control for Roll-to-Roll Web Printed Electronics System

There are many important applications in printed electronics and publishing industries that use the principle of roll-to-roll manufacturing to make printed electronic devices with lower cost. Web velocity and tension control algorithm plays an important role in improving the quality of product in mass processing of using roll-to-roll web technology. Most algorithms proposed in recent years use PI or PID controllers and disturbance compensation schemes to increase the precision and the stability. Due to the increasing demand of high accuracy in printed electronics industry at micrometer-level, it is necessary to have a precise control scheme of web velocity and tension in the presence of disturbances. In this paper, a precise control algorithm is proposed for non-linear single-span roll-to-roll web control system using the back-stepping controller with the design parameters chosen optimally by using the modified genetic algorithm. The outcome of this study proves the reliability throughout simulation results in Matlab/Simulink and in comparison to the experimental results