Inkjet printing of functional inks on textiles to embed passive electronics devices and sensors is a novel approach in the space of wearable electronic textiles. However, achieving functionality such as conductivity by inkjet printing on textiles is challenged by the porosity and surface roughness of textiles. Nanoparticle-based conductive inks frequently cause blockage/clogging of inkjet printer nozzles, making it a less than ideal method for applying these functional materials. It is also very challenging to create a conformal conductive coating and achieve electrically conductive percolation with the inkjet printing of metal nanoparticle inks on rough and porous textile and paper substrates. Herein, a novel reliable and conformal inkjet printing process is demonstrated for printing particle-free reactive silver ink on uncoated polyester textile knit, woven, and nonwoven fabrics. The particle-free functional ink can conformally coat individual fibers to create a conductive network within the textile structure without changing the feel, texture, durability, and mechanical behavior of the textile. It was found that the conductivity and the resolution of the inkjet-printed tracks are directly related with the packing and the tightness of fabric structures and fiber sizes of the fabrics. It is noteworthy that the electrical conductivity of the inkjet-printed conductive coating on pristine polyethylene terephthalate fibers is improved by an order of magnitude by in situ heat-curing of the textile surface during printing as the in situ heat-curing process minimizes the wicking of the ink into the textile structures. A minimum sheet resistance of 0.2 ± 0.025 and 0.9 ± 0.02 Ω/□ on polyester woven and polyester knit fabrics is achieved, respectively. These findings aim to advance E-textile product design through integration of inkjet printing as a low-cost, scalable, and automated manufacturing process.

In this work, a novel technique of inkjet printing e-textiles with particle free reactive silver inks on knit structures is developed. The inkjet-printed e-textiles are highly conductive, with a sheet resistance of 0.09 Ω sq -1 , by means of controlling the number of print passes, annealing process, and textile structures. It is notable that the inkjet process allows textiles to maintain its inherent properties, including stretchability, flexibility, breathability, and fabric hand after printing process. This is achieved by formation of ultrathin silver layers surrounding individual fibers. The silver layers coated on fibers range from 250 nm to 2.5 µm, maintaining the size of interstices and flexibility of fibers. The annealing process, structure of fibers, and printed layers significantly influence the electrical conductivity of the patterned structures on textiles. Outstanding electrical conductivity and durability are demonstrated by optimizing print passes, controlling textile structures, and incorporating an in situ annealing process. The electrical resistance dependence on the strain rate of the textiles is examined, showing the ability to maintain electrical conductivity to retain light-emitting diode use, stable more than 500 consecutive strain cycles. Most importantly, inkjet-printed e-textiles maintain their characteristic washability, breathability, and fabric hands for applications in wearable technology.

Textile antennas are an integral part of the next generation personalized wearable electronics system. However, the durability of textile antennas are rarely discussed in the literature. Typical textile antennas are prone to damage during normal wearable user scenarios, washing, and heat cycling over time. Fabricating a durable, washable, flexible, and breathable (like textile materials) antenna is challenging due to the incompatibility of the mechanical properties of conductive materials and soft textile materials. This paper describes a scalable screen printing process on an engineered nonwoven substrate to fabricate microstrip patch antennas with enhanced durability. This work used an Evolon® nonwoven substrate with low surface roughness (∼Ra = 18 μm) and high surface area (∼2.05 mm2 mm−2 of fabric area) compared to traditional textile materials, which allows the ink to penetrate evenly in the fiber bulk with its strong capillary wicking force and enhances print resolution. The composite layer of ink and fiber is conductive and enables the antennas to maintain high mechanical flexibility without varying its RF (Radio Frequency) properties. Additionally, the antennas are packaged by laminating porous polyurethane web to make the device durable and washable. The fully packaged antennas maintain the structural flexibility and RF functionality after 15 cycles of washing and drying. To improve the air permeability and enhance flexibility the antenna is also modified by incorporating holes in the both patch and ground layer of the antenna. The antennas were analyzed before and after submerging in water to observe the effect of wetting and drying with respect to frequency response. The porous antenna with holes recovered 3x times faster than the one without holes (solid) from fully wet state (saturated with water) to the dry state, demonstrating its potential use as a moisture sensor system.

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This review paper presents an overview of the smart electro-clothing systems (SeCSs) targeted at health monitoring, sports benefits, fitness tracking, and social activities. Technical features of the available SeCSs, covering both textile and electronic components, are thoroughly discussed and their applications in the industry and research purposes are highlighted. In addition, it also presents the developments in the associated areas of wearable sensor systems and textile-based dry sensors. As became evident during the literature research, such a review on SeCSs covering all relevant issues has not been presented before. This paper will be particularly helpful for new generation researchers who are and will be investigating the design, development, function, and comforts of the sensor integrated clothing materials.

In the printing of electronic materials for electronic textiles (e-textiles), reliability and durability of devices are of critical importance. A unique capability of a direct-write (DW) printing process is introduced that takes advantage of ink penetration in fiber bulks, owed in part to the capillary action phenomena of conductive inks on the textile. As a result of the penetration, the durability of the printed patterns improved in deformability and washability. To understand this phenomenon, the ink-to-substrate interaction of the Ag-based conductive ink on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) films, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nonwoven textiles, and nylon-PET nonwoven (Evolon®) textiles are studied. Substrate properties such as surface roughness and porosity show a significant impact on the flow properties of the ink. The penetration of the conductive ink into the fiber bulk created a unique fiber-ink composite structure that is structurally more stable under mechanical deformation. Due to the high porosity and penetration to the cross-sectional direction, the patterns on the PET nonwoven textiles showed less ink spreading on the surface and higher resistance compared to a densely structured Evolon® textiles. The printed patterns were demonstrated as wearable textile heaters and showed reliable performance during mechanical deformation, wash, and cyclic heating tests. Finally, a printed heater wrap was demonstrated on the human body to explain a use case scenario for the DW process for wearable electronics.

In this paper, a compact and low-profile proximity-fed textile-based antenna with robust performance and improved bandwidth is proposed for body-area network (BAN) applications. The employed proximity-fed antenna differs from traditional wearable antennas in the sense that it not only exhibits improved bandwidth but also a reduced footprint. The proposed antenna also possesses an extreme robustness when subject to structural deformation and human body loading effects. In addition, the impact of the uncertainty in the dielectric constant (a characteristic associated with most textile material systems) is investigated for the first time. Experimental results show that the proposed proximity-fed antenna outperforms wearable antennas that employ more conventional feeding methodologies. The antenna was fabricated using two different flexible textile-based material systems (i.e., one printed and one embroidered). The advantages and disadvantages of each fabrication approach are discussed. The proposed antenna is characterized in free-space and on a human body, yielding robust performance in both cases. INDEX TERMS Antenna, textile antennas, embroidered, screen printing, wearable application.