Semiconductor System Lab

Overview

Recently, several research results have been reported on the integration of electronics with textiles such as the wearable computer and e-textiles. Most of the previous works were based mainly on conducting threads, yarns, and woven fabrics to implement the interconnections, like the wearable motherboard. For the integration of the IC with fabric, they placed the silicon chip on a flexible plastic board and then integrated the plastic board on the fabric. However, the plastic board is harder than fabric and may generate a stiff feeling in the clothes, not withstanding the long integration process. In addition, its durability is poor due to its different hardness and temperature expansion coefficient.
A planar thin-film technology is applied directly on the fabric to fabricate a planar fashionable circuit board (P-FCB) and to introduce a direct chip-integration technique on a P-FCB. Planar technology, which has helped make the current advance of electronics technology possible, is used to fabricate P-FCBs. Planar sensors, a low-power controller chip and LEDs are integrated on a P-FCB for continuous healthcare monitoring applications. The P-FCB has the same electrical and mechanical properties as the clothes and also shows a graceful degradation in performance, exactly the same way as clothes do with time and usage.

P-FCB Manufacturing Methods