Electronics in Textiles

The Next Stage in Man Machine Interaction

W. Weber, R. Glaser, S. Jung, C. Lauterbach, G. Stromberg, and T. Sturm
Infineon Technologies AG, Corporate Research, Laboratory for Emerging Technologies

Abstract
Heading for a largely improved interface between individuals and electronics this
paper presents enabling technologies for the integration of electronics into textile
fabrics. For the realization of ‘wearable electronics’ we discuss a packaging and
interconnect technology, a silicon-based micro-machined thermoelectric
generator chip for energy harvesting from body heat, and an interwoven antenna
concept for textile RF ID labels. Furthermore, a self-organizing network of
electronic units for large area textiles is presented.

1. Introduction presented in Section 3, an interwoven

Today, the interaction of human
individuals with electronic devices
demands specific user skills. In future,
improved user interfaces can largely
alleviate this problem and push the
exploitation of microelectronics
considerably [1]. In this context the
concept of smart clothes promises
greater user-friendliness, user-
empowerment, and more efficient
services support. Wearable electronics
responds to the acting individual in a
more or less invisible way. It serves
individual needs and thus makes life
much easier. We believe that today, the
cost level of important microelectronic
functions is sufficiently low and enabling
key technologies are mature enough to
exploit this vision to the benefit of society.
In the following, we present various
technology components to enable the
integration of electronics into textiles. Key
elements are a packaging and
interconnect technology for deep textile
integration of electronics discussed in
Section 2, a silicon-based micro-
machined thermoelectric generator chip
for energy harvesting from body heat
antenna concept for RFID labels for the
identification of textiles described in
Section 4 and a self-organizing network
of electronic controllers for wall and floor
textiles discussed in Section 5.
2. Interconnect and Packaging
Technology
An interconnect and packaging
technology is demonstrated using a
polyester narrow fabric with several warp
threads replaced by copper wires which
are coated with silver and polyester. Six
of those parallel conductive warp threads
form one lead. For the electrical
connections the coating of the wires and
the surrounding textile material is
removed by laser treatment forming
holes as shown in Fig. 1, middle. A thin
flexible printed circuit board (PCB) is then
attached to the polyester fabric before
the holes in the fabric are soldered. Then
the module is encapsulated for
mechanical protection. The complete unit
is molded forming a hermetically sealed
casing that protects it against mechanical
and chemical stress caused by wearing
and cleaning the textile [2] (Fig. 1,

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bottom). As a demonstrator, a speech-
controlled MP3 player system is realized
which is based on a DSP/µC-two-
processor system [3]. The demonstrator
system architecture shown in Fig. 2 is
composed of four units, all connected via
the conductive textiles: the audio module
which is a miniaturized PCB containing
the audio chip with several auxiliary
elements, a detachable module
containing a rechargeable Li-ion battery
and a MultiMediaCard for data storage,
an earphone and microphone module,
and a capacitive keyboard module. The
user can control the music player either
by speaker-independent voice
recognition or by means of the keypad.
When integrating the proposed system
into clothing, special care is necessary
for the textile design. The materials are
chosen according to maximum wear
comfort and environmental compliance.
E.g., the audio module has been fully
covered by garment, so that the wearer
still feels a textile touch. The
demonstrator system has been designed
into the jacket shown in Fig. 3.
3. Thermogenerator for Harvesting
Electric Power from Body Heat
Numerous wearable devices such as
small remote wireless sensor units for
medical applications dissipate only a
small amount of power. The human body
produces several 10 W of heat energy.
Miniaturized thermoelectric generators
can harness part of this energy and
convert it into electrical power. These
generators are built of a large number of
thermocouples that are electrically
connected in series and arranged in
meanders to make best use of a given
area. They consist of bars of different
materials joined at one end. Due to the
thermoelectric Seebeck effect, a
temperature difference between both
ends generates a voltage and an
electrical current through a connected
load.
Fig. 1: Textile integration of electronic circuitry
using a small printed circuit board that contains
the electronic function (top). A polyester fabric is
used with warp threads locally replaced by
electrically isolated copper wires. The contact
areas in the fabric are prepared by laser treatment
(middle). For contacting a flexible printed circuit
board is used. Finally the structure is
encapsulated by a molding process (bottom).
2
 stereo
earphones battery

voltage +
2 2
regulators
2 -
HiFi I2S
DAC audio
I2C
chip SPI

2 5
GPIO program
programming EEPROM
tool
RS232
MMC
microphone

Multimediacard

capacitive
sensing circuit

keypad

Fig. 2: Schematic overview of the system

demonstrator. The core of the speech-controlled
MP3 player is the audio chip described in [3].

Fig. 3: The speech-controlled MP3-player

demonstrator system designed into a sports
jacket.

Most available thermogenerators are generator is integrated directly into the

realized using compound semiconductors fabric of the clothes with good thermal
such as bismuth telluride. However, contact to the skin. It has been found that
those are expensive, difficult to produce, an effective ∆T of up to 5K can be
not compatible with standard silicon chip achieved [5]. For this value an output
fabrication processes and non- power of 1.6 µW/cm2 is obtained which is
disposable. They will thus not be the sufficient to power devices like a wrist
optimal choice for low cost applications watch.
such as wearables. In line with these
arguments silicon appears to be a better 4. Interwoven Antenna for a
choice. Fig. 4(a) shows a technological Transponder System in Textile Fabric
cross-section revealing the Today, radio frequency identification tags
micromachining technology [4]. Recently, (RF ID Tags) are among the smallest and
we have realized a chip with 16.000 least expensive electronic systems. They
thermocouples on a silicon chip consist of a tiny (typically 1 mm2) silicon
measuring 7.0 mm2. Fig. 4(b) shows the chip embedded into an inlay with a planar
output power measured as a function of antenna structure. The two antenna
the temperature difference between both contacts are connected to the respective
sides of the chip. A quadratic contacts on the chip. Total cost is below
dependence of the output power versus 1 €. Neither external leads nor a battery
the temperature difference ∆T occurs. In are necessary. Both power supply and
order to gain a large difference between I/O are performed by the antenna (Fig.
body and ambient temperature a

3
 14

output power per area [µW/cm2]

poly-Si oxide
12

10
alu
m inu
m
cavity 8
n-p
oly ox
ide Si substrate
loc
p-p
oly 6
os alu µ-TEG
ca oxid m inu
1 µ vity e m
m
n-p 4
Sili oly
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(no on su
t to bs
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sc ate r
loc
os
p-p
oly 2
ale
) ca oxide
vit
y
z 0
y x 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

(a) (b) temperature difference over assembly [K]

Fig. 4: Cross-section of a silicon-based micro-machined thermoelectric generator chip (a). The vertical heat
flow generates a voltage within the junctions of n- and p-polysilicon. In (b) the measured output power is
depicted of the thermoelectric generator as a function of the temperature difference. At a temperature
difference of 5K, the demonstrator chip generates approximately 1.6µW/cm².

5a). Those functions are performed by a in textile applications. A conducting spiral

reader device that emits electromagnetic can be realized by connecting
waves at a specific frequency received orthogonally oriented conductive warp
and modulated by the tag. RF ID tags are and weft threads in a fabric according to
self-contained systems allowing a Fig. 5b. By this means, the antenna
hermetically sealed package. This fact structure is fully embedded into the fabric
facilitates their integration into fabrics in an unobtrusive and robust way. The
subject to harsh cleaning procedures. chip can be mounted by one of the
For integration of RF ID tags into textile integration methods described earlier
fabrics the concept of a transponder (Fig. 1).
system with a woven antenna coil
structure is proposed [2]. Applications 5 Fault-tolerant Integration of
include the item management in Microelectronics in Smart Textiles
laundries or in logistics supply chains, the
protection of branded goods and security In the following, we present the concept
applications such as access controls. of technical textiles containing active
Due to the self-contained nature of RF ID microsystems spatially distributed over
tags they have excellent properties in the fabric [6]. The variety of applications
withstanding elevated temperatures, for such a system is huge: pressure
pressures, chemicals, and mechanic sensors and display units in floor cloths
stress. Existing RF ID antenna structures for surveillance or guidance systems in
are not suited for the rough environment public buildings, intelligent sheets for

4
 group of
conductive
threads

contact

RFID
Chip
laser
hole

(a) (b)
Fig. 5 (a) Photograph of a modern RF ID product with a printed antenna on plastic substrate connected
to a small silicon chip. The complete structure is sealed by a second plastic layer to prevent corrosion
and mechanical defects. (b) Concept of a woven antenna structure for a textile transponder system.
Conductive warp and weft threads are connected to realize a spiral.
monitoring vital signals of patients in For ease of use we invented a self-
hospitals, defect detection for condition organizing technique based on simple
monitoring in textile concrete locally processed algorithms [7]. Small
constructions, and many more. Each of microprocessors on the integrated
these applications poses high technical modules control the data flow. After an
requirements regarding functionality, initial learning phase, each module in
reliability, and ease and cost-efficiency the fabric network knows its exact
of manufacturing. physical position within the grid.
The idea was realized by Moreover, the network automatically
microelectronics integration in a coarsely configures data flow paths through the
meshed fabric. This fabric could be a grid, routing sensor or display
basic or intermediate layer of floor or information even around defective
wall covering or any kind of technical regions. Figure 7 shows the final status:
the channels for data flow within the grid
textile. Figure 6a shows a schematic of
are established, automatically routing
an embedded network of processing
around defective regions.
elements in a textile fabric. In Figure 6b
a photograph of the concept study of a The unique feature of the proposed
smart carpet is depicted. Red and blue integration concept is its fault-tolerance:
threads indicate the supply wires, the by means of a self-organization
green threads mark data lines. A small technique, the fabric network
microelectronics module is connected at automatically recognizes defective
the cross-over points of the wires. In this regions. It therefore remains operational
way, each module is connected at each even if a microdevice fails, or conductive
of its four sides to the supply and data threads are damaged. The fabric may
lines. After encapsulation, a smart fabric even be cut to arbitrary shapes to fit into
is realized featuring a regular grid of a given room while maintaining its
integrated microelectronics modules. function. Moreover, due to the self-

5
organization, booting is automatic. There
is no need for a manual installation of
the grid microelectronics.

6. Conclusion
The realization of 'textile electronics' is a
result of the convergence of
microelectronics with textiles
surrounding us in our daily life, be it
clothing, home textiles or technical
textiles. This process requires the
Fig. 6b Concept Demonstrator of a network of
development of enabling key
electronic units connected via conducting leads in
technologies. Various technology
the fabric.
demonstrators were proposed which
consistently aim for improving the
-4/7 -3/7 -2/7 -1/7 0/7 1/7 2/7 3/7 4/7 5/7 6/7
interaction between the human -4/6 -3/6 -2/6 -1/6 0/6 2/6 3/6 4/6 5/6 6/6
individual and information technology. -4/5 -3/5 -2/5 -1/5 0/5 1/5 2/5 3/5 4/5 5/5 6/5
-4/4 -3/4 -2/4 -1/4 0/4 1/4 2/4 3/4 4/4 5/4 6/4
0/3 1/3 2/3 3/3 5/3 6/3
0/2 1/2 2/2 3/2 4/2 5/2 6/2
0/1 1/1 2/1 3/1 4/1 5/1 6/1
0/0 1/0 2/0 3/0 4/0 5/0 6/0

Figure 7 Final status of the self-organization: the

channels for data flow are established,
fabric with conductive threads automatically routing around defective regions
supply voltage
data lines
microelectronics module
They open the way to promising
Figure 6a Schematic of an embedded network of scenarios like ambient intelligence that
processing elements in a textile fabric may lead to a completely new market of
microelectronic technologies in just a
few years time.

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References:
[1] "Ambient Intelligence, the Next Paradigm for
Consumer Electronics: How Will it Affect Silicon?",
F. Boekhorst, ISSCC, pp. 28-31, 2002.
[2] "Enabling Technologies for Disappearing
Electronics in Smart Textiles", S. Jung C.
Lauterbach, M. Strasser, and W. Weber, ISSCC
Tech. Digest, pp. 386-387, 2003.
[3] "A Digital Music Player Tailored for Smart
Textiles: First Results", S. Jung, C. Lauterbach,
and W. Weber, Proc. Avantex-Symposium, 2002.
[4] “Miniaturized Thermoelectric Generators
Based on Poly-Si and Poly-SiGe Surface
Micromachining”, M. Strasser, R. Aigner, M.
Franosch, G. Wachutka, Sensors and Actuators
A, Vol. 97-98C, S. 528-535 (2002).
[5] "Smart Clothes Self-Powered by Body Heat",
C. Lauterbach, M. Strasser, S. Jung, and W.
Weber, Proc. Avantex Symposium, 2002.
[6] "Applications of Microelectronics and Sensors
in Intelligent Textile Fabrics", S. Jung, T. Sturm, C.
Lauterbach, G. Stromberg, and W. Weber, Proc.
Techtextil 2003.
[7] "A Novel Fault-Tolerant Architecture for Self-
Organizing Display and Sensor Arrays", T. F.
Sturm, S. Jung, G. Stromberg and A. Stöhr, in
Jay Morreale ed., SID Symposium Tech. Dig., vol.
XXXIII, Number II, pp. 1316-1319, 2002.