Smart textiles - encapsulation of sensors

In the recent years, wearable devices
have attracted substantial attention from researchers
and industrial manufacturers. The use of smart
textiles can give a high evolution of the interaction of
human individuals with electronic devices. However,
the technology faces challenges regarding packaging
of electronic components on textiles as high durability,
flexibility and washability are demands. This
study investigates the adhesion between encapsulants
of electronics and various textiles in order to improve
the reliability of integration of sensors into
textiles. For textiles with low adhesion properties a
pretreatment process, chemical primer and oxygen
plasma treatment, was applied to improve the adhesion.
The methods used for evaluating the adhesion
were a 180˚peel test and washing tests. Learning
from this study, the authors succeeded to integrate a
humidity and temperature sensor onto a textile.