Conductive Yarn Embroidered Circuits for System on Textiles

Abstract

With the recent convergence of electronics and textile technology, various kinds of smart wearables are being developed, such as heating clothes, health monitoring clothes, and motion sensing clothes. In this study, the novel conductive embroidery yarns for touch sensing and signal transmission for system on textile (SoT) are introduced. The conductive yarn for touch sensing can be used as a user interface of smart clothes by constructing an embroidery circuit. The conductive yarn for signal transmission can be embroidered on smart clothing and used as a transmission line to transmit power and signal. The conductive yarns and their embroidered circuits were characterized and SoT prototypes using the embroidered circuit of these conductive yarns were presented. These e-textiles based on touch sensing and signal transmission can be comfortably applied for SoT and maintain electrical performance without being damaged by tensile force generated by the movement of the wearer.