Large area sensor integration in textiles

In recent years, the integration of electronics in technical textiles has gained increasing attention especially in Europe. Many industry driven projects have already been started in this area on national as well as on European level. An example is the European project PASTA. In order to make the step towards industrial manufacturing of wearable electronics as well as smart large area technical textiles it is necessary to develop modular concepts as well as integration processes suitable for high volume production. Within PASTA new electronic packaging technologies and the development of new textile structures are investigated. By introducing new concepts for electronic packaging and module interconnects, a seamless, more comfortable and more robust integration of electronics in textiles will be possible. The main technological developments concentrate on different levels of integration: a new concept for bare die integration into a yarn, a new interconnect technology based on mechanical crimping, and the development of a stretchable interposer serving as a stress relief interface between the rigid component and the elastic fabric. The technologies will also be analyzed and evaluated regarding functionality and reliability. The proposed solutions for integration of electronics in textiles will cover a whole range of components, from ultra-small LEDs to complex multichip modules for sensor data processing. Moreover, a system design task will address the power distribution and system partitioning aspects to provide a complete solution for integration of a distributed sensor/actuator system in fabric. Different approaches are possible for large area sensors in textiles. The scope of this paper is to show which technologies enable the use of conductive yarns in a fabric for pressure and damage detection and in-situ monitoring of accumulated stress in composites to predict the residual lifetime and to indicate damage of industrial components.