New and improved
methods to intertwine electronics and apparel is on the
rise.
According to a recent
Printed Electronics World article, “A
new world of flexible, bendable, even stretchable electronics is emerging from
research labs to address a wide range of potentially game-changing uses. The
common, rigid printed circuit board is slowly being replaced by a thin ribbon of
resilient, high-performance electronics.
This research was
presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society last week. "Basically,
we are using a hybrid technology that mixes traditional electronics with
flexible, high-performance electronics and new 3-D printing technologies," says
Benjamin J. Leever, Ph.D., who is at the Air Force Research Laboratory at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. "In some cases, we incorporate 'inks,' which
are based on metals, polymers and organic materials, to tie the system together
electronically. With our technology, we can take a razor-thin silicon integrated
circuit, a few hundred nanometers thick, and place it on a flexible, bendable or
even foldable, plastic-like substrate material," he says. To allow electronics
to be bendable or stretchable or even change their configuration after
fabrication, the Wright-Patterson team has turned to liquid gallium alloys as
an electrical interconnect material, Leever says. Read more.
The above mentioned
tech, may or may not be currently suitable for clothing. However, there is most
definitely significant progress in regard to utilizing stretchable inks on
apparel and fashion accessories.
Back in December
2014. DuPont Microcircuit Materials (DuPont) introduced a suite of stretchable
electronic ink materials for use in smart clothing applications and
other wearable electronics. The materials provide an elegant,
manufacturing-ready alternative to many traditional methods of embedding
electronics in clothing. The DuPont materials have been used to create thin,
form-fitting circuits that can be seamlessly bonded with many standard fabrics,
allowing for comfort and freedom in wearable electronic design. A working model
of a biometric shirt that incorporates DuPont electronic inks was on display for
the first time during Printed Electronics USA 2014, in Santa Clara,
Calif.
DuPont stretchable electronic
inks deliver stable performance despite repeated elongation. A third party
evaluation of fabrics that incorporate these DuPont materials to create thin
electronic circuits have shown them to be washable, durable, and capable of
withstanding up to 100 wash cycles. These DuPont materials can be used in many
common manufacturing processes to produce smart clothing, including fitness and
outerwear, without significant investment.
DuPont plans to offer
a full material suite of conductors, encapsulants, and sensors for use in
wearable electronics applications, including:
- DuPont PE872 stretchable conductor, which is washable with encapsulation.
- DuPont PE772 stretchable, washable dielectric encapsulant
DuPont Microcircuit
Materials (MCM) is a leading innovator and high-volume supplier of
electronic inks and pastes that offers a broad range of printed electronic
materials commercially available today. The growing portfolio of DuPont MCM
electronic inks is used in many applications, including forming conductive
traces, capacitor and resistor elements, and dielectric and encapsulating layers
that are compatible with many substrate surfaces including polymer, glass and
ceramic.
MCM has over 40 years
of experience in the development, manufacture, sale and support of specialized
thick film compositions for a variety of electronic applications in the consumer
electronics, automotive, photovoltaic, biomedical, military and
telecommunications markets. For more information on DuPont Microcircuit
Materials, visit http://mcm.dupont.com.
Learn more about
wearable technology here on Apparel Search.
Thank you for taking the time to read our fashion technology blog post. We hope that you have found this news to be informative. If you have comments or questions, please add your thoughts in the discussion area below.