Textile-Friendly Interconnection between Wearable Measurement Instrumentation and Sensorized Garments-Initial...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Biomedical Engineering
• Textile Engineering

Background:

• Integrating rigid electronics with flexible textiles is challenging for mass-producing sensorized garments.
• Existing methods often suffer from issues related to size, flexibility, cost, and assembly complexity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a stretchable and conductive carbon nanotube (CNT)-based paste for screen printing textile interconnectors.
• To evaluate the performance of CNT paste connectors for electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings in sensorized garments.

Main Methods:

• Screen printing a CNT-based paste onto textile substrates to create interconnectors.
• Evaluating prototype connectors using ECG recordings from a sensorized textile with integrated electrodes.
• Comparing signal quality and heart rate detection performance against standard Ag/AgCl electrodes and direct cable connections.

Main Results:

• CNT paste connectors demonstrated equivalent signal quality to silver paste connectors and direct cable connections.
• The developed connectors are suitable for reliable heart rate detection.
• The screen printing method offers a scalable and potentially cost-effective solution for textile-electronics integration.

Conclusions:

• Screen-printable CNT paste provides a viable solution for interconnecting electronics and textiles in sensorized garments.
• This approach addresses limitations of current methods, paving the way for mass production of wearable electronic products.
• The technology shows promise for advanced wearable health monitoring systems.