Speaker:
Dr. John L. Volakis
Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing at FIU

When: March 23, 2021 1:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

In recent years, a variety of flexible fabric-based electronics have been proposed. To this end, our team proposed a new class of conductive textiles that have demonstrated unique capabilities in terms of flexibility, durability and manufacturing-ease using standard automated embroidery machinery. These electronic threads (E-threads) have the capability to generate fully embroidered microwave circuitry that has the same electrical properties as traditional microwave circuits printed on PCBs. Concurrently, the developed embroidery process has been demonstrated to deliver the same accuracy as PCB technologies. Therefore, these new E-threads are providing for a path to realize full-scale wireless communication devices that are embroidered on wearable textile garments. They can therefore enable a new class of wearable devices that are not appendages, but rather fully intergraded and inconspicuously placed within clothing.

A key manufacturing feature of the proposed E-textile is their bundling process. A single thread is comprised of several 15μm thick filaments. The inner core of the filament is comprised of a 10μm polymer (Zylon or Kevlar, among others), covered by a 5μm thick metallic coating. These filaments can be bundled into 6 or more to form a single thread for weaving into the garment. As such, a ‘printing” resolution as good as 0.1 mm has been achieved. This resolution is nearly the same as that of standard Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). Notably, by using the large surface of garments, a ten-fold increase in transmitted power of wireless signals can be achieved, enabling reliable communications at much longer distances.

Prototypes for sensors, RFIDs, antennas, WiFi boosters, and body imagers have been developed and tested for flexibility, mechanical robustness, and durability. These applications will be discussed at the meeting along with success stories for wearable wireless devices. However, several challenges remain in bringing reliable textile-based electronic devices, including wearable wideband transceivers, to the market. Among them, two challenges must be addressed: 1) reliable and repeatable interconnects, 2) chipsets that are less bulky and integrated with the textile circuitry in a reliable manner, 3) manufacturing costs. At the meeting, we will discuss these challenges and possible approaches to overcoming them.

Meeting will be recorded.
Link for this meeting:
Zoom:
https://fiu.zoom.us/j/93976220615?pwd=NkdlNjhiYS8rc3hDNldxZGRiS0RFZz09
Recording and Slides:
https://site.ieee.org/miami/?p=2250
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