Etextiles

Electronic textiles, or e-textiles, describe fabrics that incorporate electronic components and digital devices to sense, respond to, or communicate information about the wearer or environment. They integrate textile substrates with sensors, actuators, circuits, and power sources, and can be woven, knitted, nonwoven, or embroidered. Components may include conductive fibers or yarns, flexible sensors, microcontrollers, actuators, energy storage such as flexible batteries or supercapacitors, and wireless interfaces.

Construction methods include weaving, knitting, embroidery with conductive threads, printed electronics on textile surfaces, and the integration of chips and components into seams or linings. Common sensing modalities include physiological signals (heart rate, temperature, respiration), environmental monitoring (gas, humidity), and gesture or position sensing. Power management is a key consideration, with energy harvesting or flexible batteries and the goal of washable, durable devices. Wireless communication standards such as Bluetooth, NFC, or Zigbee are used to connect e-textiles to smartphones or other devices.

Applications span health and wellness, sports and rehabilitation, safety gear, industrial monitoring, and interactive fashion. Smart garments may monitor vital signs, provide haptic feedback, or enable remote control of devices. Environmental sensors embedded in textiles can report air quality or contamination.

Challenges include washability, durability under bending and stretching, comfort, heat generation, battery safety, data privacy and security, and regulatory compliance. Standards and testing programs address electrical safety, electromagnetic compatibility, wash durability, and interoperability, but the field lacks uniform, universal standards across applications.

Research and industry activity in e-textiles is multidisciplinary, combining textile engineering, electronics, materials science, and user experience design. Ongoing developments aim to improve reliability, ease of integration, and accessibility for mass production, with an emphasis on user safety and data protection.