Textile-integrated three-dimensional printed and embroidered structures for wearable wireless platforms

Abstract

In this paper, we present fabrication and performance evaluation of three-dimensional (3D) printed and embroidered textile-integrated passive ultra high frequency radio frequency identification (RFID) platforms. The antennas were manufactured by 3D printing a stretchable silver conductor directly on an elastic band. The electric and mechanical joint between the 3D printed antennas and microchips was formed by gluing with conductive epoxy glue, by printing the antenna directly on top of the microchip structure, and by embroidering with conductive yarn. Initially, all types of fabricated RFID tags achieved read ranges of 8–9 meters. Next, the components were tested for wetting as well as for harsh cyclic strain and bending. The immersing and cyclic bending slightly affected the performance of the tags. However, they did not stop the tags from working in an acceptable way, nor did they have any permanent effect. The epoxy-glued or 3D printed antenna–microchip interconnections were not able to endure harsh stretching. On the other hand, the tags with the embroidered antenna–microchip interconnections showed excellent wireless performance, both during and after a 100 strong stretching cycles. Thus, the novel approach of combining 3D printing and embroidery seems to be a promising way to fabricate textile-integrated wireless platforms.

Keywords

antennas embroidery interconnections passive ultra high frequency radio frequency identification stretchable electronics textile-integrated electronics wearable platforms three-dimensional printing

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Van-Daele P, Moerman I and Demeester P. Wireless body area networks: status and opportunities. In: general assembly and scientific symposium (URSI GASS), Beijing, China, 16–23 August 2014, pp.1–4. New York: IEEE.

Zheng

Ding

Poon

CCY

et al.

Unobtrusive sensing and wearable devices for health informatics. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2014; 61: 1538–1554.

Kennedy

Fink

Chu

et al.

Body-worn E-textile antennas: the good, the low-mass, and the conformal. IEEE Trans Antennas Propagat 2009; 57: 910–918.

Manzari

Occhiuzzi

Marrocco

. Feasibility of body-centric systems using passive textile RFID tags. IEEE Antennas Propagat Mag 2012; 54: 49–62.

Kaufmann T, Fumeaux IM and Fumeaux C. Comparison of fabric and embroidered dipole antennas. In: European conference on antennas and propagation, Gothenburg, Sweden, 8–12 April 2013, pp.3252–3255, CA, USA: IEEE.

Want

. An introduction to RFID technology. IEEE Pervasive Comput 2006; 5: 25–33.

Dobkin D. The RF in RFID: passive UHF RFID in practice. CA, USA: Newnes-Elsevier, 2008.

Patron

et al.

On the use of knitted antennas and inductively coupled RFID tags for wearable applications. IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst 2016; 10: 1047–1057.

Nayak

Singh

Padhye

et al.

RFID in textile and clothing manufacturing: technology and challenges. Fashion Text 2015; 2: 9–9.

10.

Wang S, Chong N, Virkki J, et al. Towards washable electro-textile UHF RFID tags: reliability study of epoxy-coated copper fabric antennas. Int J Antennas Propagat 2015; Article 424150: 8.

11.

Shao S, Kiourti A, Burkholder R, et al. Flexible and stretchable UHF RFID tag antennas for automotive tire sensing. In: proceedings of the European conference on antennas propagation (EuCAP), The Hague, Netherlands, 6–11 April 2014, pp.2908–2910. New York: IEEE.

12.

Chen X, Liu A, Wei Z, et al. Experimental study on strain reliability of embroidered passive UHF RFID textile tag antennas and interconnections. J Eng 2017; Article 8493405: 7.

13.

Björninen T, Virkki J, Sydänheimo L, et al. Possibilities of 3D direct write dispensing for textile UHF RFID tag manufacturing. In: IEEE international symposium on antennas and propagation & USNC/URSI national radio science meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 19–24 July 2015, pp.1316–1317. New York: IEEE.

14.

He H, Akbari M, Sydänheimo L, et al. 3D-printed graphene antennas and interconnections for textile RFID tags: fabrication and reliability towards humidity. Int J Antennas Propagat 2017; Article 1386017: 5.

15.

Ginestet

Brechet

Torres

et al.

Embroidered antenna-microchip interconnections in passive UHF RFID textile tags. IEEE Antennas Wireless Propagat Lett 2017; 16: 1205–1208.

16.

Moradi

Bjorninen

Ukkonen

et al.

Effects of sewing pattern on the performance of embroidered dipole-type RFID tag antennas. IEEE Antennas Wireless Propagat Lett 2012; 11: 1482–1485.

17.

Berglund ME, Duval J, Simon C, et al. Surface-mount component attachment for e-textiles. In: proceedings of ACM international symposium on wearable computers, Osaka, Japan, 7–11 September 2015, pp.65–66. New York: ACM.

18.

Post

Orth

Russo

et al.

E-broidery: design and fabrication of textile-based computing. IBM Syst J 2000; 39: 840–860.

19.

Linz T, Kallmayer C, Aschenbrenner R, et al. Embroidering electrical interconnects with conductive yarn for the integration of flexible electronic modules into fabric. In: ninth IEEE international symposium on wearable computers, Osaka, Japan, 18–21 October 2005, pp.86–89. New York: IEEE.

20.

Linz

Vieroth

Dils

et al.

Embroidered interconnections and encapsulation for electronics in textiles for wearable electronics applications. Adv Sci Technol 2008; 60: 85–94.

21.

Nscrypt USA. Smart Pump, http://www.nscrypt.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2016-SmartPump-Gen2.pdf (accessed 5 April 2017).

22.

Voyantic Ltd. Tagformance, http://www.voyantic.com/tagformance (accessed 5 April 2017).

23.

Virkki

Björninen

Merilampi

et al.

The effects of recurrent stretching on the performance of electro-textile and screen-printed ultra-high-frequency radio-frequency identification tags. Text Res J 2015; 85: 294–301.