Light-Emitting Textiles: Device Architectures, Working Principles, and Applications

Abstract

E-textiles represent an emerging technology aiming toward the development of fabric with augmented functionalities, enabling the integration of displays, sensors, and other electronic components into textiles. Healthcare, protective clothing, fashion, and sports are a few examples application areas of e-textiles. Light-emitting textiles can have different applications: sensing, fashion, visual communication, light therapy, etc. Light emission can be integrated with textiles in different ways: fabricating light-emitting fibers and planar light-emitting textiles or employing side-emitting polymer optical fibers (POFs) coupled with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Different kinds of technology have been investigated: alternating current electroluminescent devices (ACELs), inorganic and organic LEDs, and light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs). The different device working principles and architectures are discussed in this review, highlighting the most relevant aspects and the possible approaches for their integration with textiles. Regarding POFs, the methodology to obtain side emissions and the critical aspects for their integration into textiles are discussed in this review. The main applications of light-emitting fabrics are illustrated, demonstrating that LEDs, alone or coupled with POFs, represent the most robust technology. On the other hand, OLEDs (Organic LEDs) are very promising for the future of light-emitting fabrics, but some issues still need to be addressed.

Smart E-Textile Systems: A Review for Healthcare Applications

“…Optical fiber-based smart textiles are being used for treatments for different diseases. Wavelength selection is a major factor for light therapy treatments, as the change in light wavelength modifies the light penetration into human skin tissues [89,90]. Figure 14 highlights the light penetration phenomenon in the human body with the increase in wavelength.…”

“…The developed prototype example is presented in Figure 15. Cinquino et al [90] presented the detailed working principle and applications of light-emitting textiles, especially in therapeutic devices. Light therapy can be used for pain relief treatments, tissue repair, complex disease treatments, etc.…”

“…Figure 16 describes the light therapy treatment example at different positions. The device has three light-emitting flexible fabrics, each illuminating with a 635 nm laser at a low fluence Cinquino et al [90] presented the detailed working principle and applications of light-emitting textiles, especially in therapeutic devices. Light therapy can be used for pain relief treatments, tissue repair, complex disease treatments, etc.…”

An Overview on Methods for Producing Side-Emitting Polymer Optical Fibers

“…The research progress in the field of POF has already been summarized in many review papers, such as [16,17] for POF fundamentals, [18] for production and spinning processes, [19][20][21] for dye-doped POF, [22] for POF gratings, [23,24] for multi-step index and graded index POF, [25][26][27][28][29] for sensor technology and applications, [30,31] for medical applications and [32] for illuminating textiles in general, including POF. To the best of the authors' knowledge, no systematic review on side-emitting polymer optical fibers and their fabrication methods has been published.…”

Modeling and Simulations of 4H-SiC/6H-SiC/4H-SiC Single Quantum-Well Light Emitting Diode Using Diffusion Bonding Technique

“…In recent years, the astonishing features of solid-state LEDs such as high luminous efficiency, high color rendering index (CRI), and longevity have made them promising candidates to replace conventional light sources [3]. The current research trends involve a systematic investigation of a variety of organic/inorganic materials for a wide range of optoelectronic applications [4][5][6][7][8][9][10].…”