Textile-Based Electronic Substrate Technology

Abstract

The present paper presents a proceeding to prepare partially conductive textile structures as basic substrates to integrate sensors and microelectronic devices into textiles. The proceeding is based on two steps. The first is to create a textile prestructure by conventional textile technologies, such as Jacquard weaving, embroidery etc. using silver-coated polyamide threads. The second is a galvanic and/or electrochemical treatment of the textile prestructure. It will be shown that galvanic and electrochemical treatment of such structures permit a change in the conductivity of two to three orders of magnitude, modification of the surface as it is needed to get sensor properties, and insulation or encapsulation of the conducting structure.