Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

Electronic Textiles

...opposites attract?
Ivo Locher
Dr. Tünde Kirstein
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 Suitability ?

• We want to determine the suitability of textiles for

signal transmission in Wearables
– Characterization of electrical properties of conductive
textiles is necessary.
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

– Utilization of electrical engineering measurement

methods for characterization

Can textile replace regular printed circuit boards?

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 Speed ?

How many bits/sec can we transmit from tip to toe

through textiles?

• Analog Modem 56 kbit/s

Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

• Bluetooth 1 Mbit/s
• WLAN (IEEE 802.11) 11 Mbit/s ? textiles
• LAN (Ethernet) 100 Mbit/s
• PCI Bus > 700 Mbit/s

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 Textiles under Test

Textiles used in our experiments:

– Woven fabrics with insulated metal fibers
– Metal fibers are twisted with polyester yarns
– Different yarn fineness and direction of conductive
fibers
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

Yarn Ø Copper fiber Ø

228µm 40µm
334µm 40µm

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 Textile Geometry

Irregularities in textile geometry

– Variations of yarn diameters (i)
– Variations of yarn distances (ii)
– Bending of yarn within plane (iii)
Example to (i) and (ii)
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

dimensions variations
d=334µm σ=28.0µm
a=876µm σ=25.0µm Example to (iii)

Radius depending
d on textile width

Distributor: Elektro-Feindraht AG
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 Conductor in Yarn

• Fibers follow a helical path within the yarn

• Yarns are periodically bent in woven structure
⇒ Result: electrical length of conductive fiber is
greater than length of fabric
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

Yarn Ø Length of conductive

fiber compared to fabric
228µm +7.5% (tolerance 0.5%)

334µm +25.5% (tolerance 2.0%)

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 Characterization

Measurements:
• Electrical impedance
• Characteristic impedance Z0
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

• Frequency Response (Bandwidth)

• Cross-Talk
• Digital Signal Transmission Analysis

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 Measurement Setup

• For time and frequency domain analysis

• Utilization of different number of signal line
configurations
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

configurations:

- GS (1 signal line)
- GSG (1 signal line)
ground
- GSSG (2 signal lines)
signal
- GSSSG (3 signal lines)
ground

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 Measurement Setup (cont‘d)
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

For time and frequency domain analysis

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 Characteristic Impedances Z0

• As number of signal lines increases, the

characteristic impedance decreases.
• Impedance variations (about 10%) along the signal
line caused by geometric irregularities within textile
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

Ø 228µm Ø 334µm

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 Digital Signal Transmission
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

• Good signal integrity at 100MHz and 20cm line length

• As fast as LAN (Ethernet)
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 Conclusions

• We have introduced electrical engineering methods for

characterization of conductive textiles
– Electrical Impedance
– Characteristic Impedance Z0
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

– Frequency Response
– Cross-Talk
– Digital Signal Transmission Analysis

• High signal integrity up to several 100MHz.

• These results are fundamental for interconnections
among truly wearable computers

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 Current & Future Work

• Investigation of wearing stresses

• Realization of electrical circuits and connectors in

textiles
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

• First applications in:

– Medical prevention
– Medical monitoring

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 The „Wearable Revolution“

• Advances in:
– Textiletechnology
– Material science
– Computing
• Interdisciplinary research necessary!
Wearable Computing Lab, ETH Zurich

Electronic Textiles

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