Electronic Interconnection for Textiles

"The main problem facing development of electronic textiles is the difficulty in electrically connecting conductive paths in the textiles with themselves and with devices mounted on and within the textiles.Triton proposes to develop the textile equivalent of solder and copper printed circuitry in conventional rigid interconnection. Triton's proposed approach uses novel conductive fibers and interconnections that can be rendered electrically conducting bythermal or chemical means to make interconnection points. The approach takes advantage of the x-y and z direction capability of textiles and multiple plies of fabric to create interconnected flexible, durable and efficient electronics.Triton's proposal addresses the need for reliable interconnection in flexible electronic textiles. Although many applications exist for e-textiles, including sensors, computers and displays built into clothing, and large area arrays of sensor and displayelements, little if any work is being conducted on interconnection for circuits in flexible fabric. The proposed Phase I program will show the feasibility of polymer-based conductive interconnection with a combination of electrical conductivity and mechanical durability. We anticipate that results will point the way to improvements in Phase II andbeyond in the areas of insulated fibers that can be woven into fabrics, and interconnections that can be used with the fibers and devices mounted on and in th