Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Digital Technologies for the Textile Industries
Manchester, UK, 5-6 September 2013
The next generation of electronic textiles
Colin Cork*, Tilak Dias, Tessa Acti, Anura Ratnayaka, Ekael Mbise, Ioannis Anastasopoulos, Anna Piper
The Advanced Textiles Research Group, School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham, United Kingdom, NG1 4BU
* Corresponding Author. Email: colin.cork@ntu.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
The combination of electrical functionality and textiles has a long history. An electric corset from the 19th century promised rather dubious health benefits for ladies “in all stations of life”. A patent from 1911 describes some electrically heated gloves for “drivers of aeroplanes, automobiles, motor boats and other conveyances which are guided by manually operated steering wheels”. Electric blankets began to have commercial success starting from the late 1930s. Over the last decade, there has been considerable interest in more sophisticated technologies and new generations of modern electronic textiles can be identified. Smart and Interactive Textiles (SMIT) are a new emerging sector and growth is forecast at 40% annually and to reach US$2.5 billion by 2021.The history of electrical and electronic textiles will be briefly reviewed and the latest developments in the creation of a new generation technology for the integration of semi-conductor chips within the fibres of yarns will be described.
Keywords: electronic textiles, wearable electronics, smart textiles, wearables.
Introduction
Textile clothing has always been multifunctional. So a shirt might provide warmth, demonstrate your status or be somewhere to keep your pen. Over the centuries technologies have developed to enhance functionality. Major developments have been the introduction of synthetic fibres, advances in breathable waterproof fabrics and easy care properties together with specific functions such as impact protection or flame resistance. The successful uptake of any technology is, of course, dependent on the cost of production. One thinks of the cost advantages achieved by the development of knitting machines in the Elizabethan era and the technological advances of the industrial revolution. Electronic textiles are today relatively expensive but there are good reasons to believe that, with improved technologies, costs will be driven down.
The first generation of electronic equipment utilised vacuum tubes (valves) and was consequently bulky and somewhat fragile. In the second generation, more robust transistors were packaged in smaller boxes to produce products such as a radio, a personal computer or a mobile phone. In early electronic textiles pre-packaged equipment was inserted into pockets. Later, functionality was introduced by incorporating electrically conducting yarns into fabric structures. There is now the potential to fully encapsulate integrated circuit chips within the fibres of textile yarns to provide a robust, inexpensive and flexible platform for a host of functions. The development of electronically functional yarns promises to revolutionise electronic textiles by introducing advanced electronic functionality at the manufacturing stage.
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