Experimental analysis of fabric substrate on a moisture sensor

Abstract

In this work, an embroidered textile moisture sensor is proposed and characterized with three different fabric substrates. The sensors are based on a capacitive interdigitated structure embroidered on a textile substrate with a conductive yarn. The performance of three different type of substrates has been addressed. In order to evaluate the sensor behavior, the impedance of the sensor has been measured by means of an LCR meter from 20 Hz to 200 kHz on a climatic chamber with a sweep of the relative humidity from 30% to 80% at 20ºC. The results show that the fabric substrate defines the electrical properties of the sensor due to both, the substrate permittivity and size yarn thickness increase. This sensor dependence determines the optimum substrate to be used to develop wearable applications for moisture measurement.

Recent Studies on the Humidity Sensor: A Mini Review

“…This conductive yarn is created using a coating technique in which a polyamide (PA) thread is coated with pure silver. The sensors made of cotton fabrics demonstrate a 99.87% decrease in impedance when the RH level is increased from 30% to 80% …”

“…The sensors made of cotton fabrics demonstrate a 99.87% decrease in impedance when the RH level is increased from 30% to 80%. 88 Zhuang et al created humidity sensors based on SPEEK and PEEK-co-PEG, as well as polymer−salt complexes. They stated that the combined effect of these two conductive mechanisms in polymer−salt complexes can drastically enhance the humiditysensing characteristics of sensors.…”

A Smart Textile System to Detect Urine Leakage

“…The substrate is the key parameter for sensor behaviour, depending of the substrate material different sensitivities are obtained, which are explained by the different properties of the materials and chemical treatments. Previous works from the authors [24], [25] shows how variation on yarn or substrate material directly.The conclusions from these works are used to choose the materials to build the sensor. The proposed system has been integrated on two different applications, underwear and medical sheets.…”

Silver Conductive Threads-Based Embroidered Electrodes on Textiles as Moisture Sensors for Fluid Detection in Biomedical Applications

“…Different fabric substrates such as denim textile [24], cotton satin fabrics [33], cotton woven fabric, polyester woven fabric and medical cotton woven fabric [34] and boxer underwear made from cotton [35] can be utilized to develop different embroidered sensors [36]. Fabric substrates have been identified as a natural and convenient solution for developing wearable electrical sensors for these applications because the use of textile in human life.…”