Scientists get weaving on wearable electronics
13 April 2007
For the first time, scientists have woven tiny plastic circuits into fabric fibres, bringing wearable electronics a step closer to reality. So how long will it be before we're plugging in to our pullovers? Antenna investigates...
This research was published in the journal Nature Materials on 1 April 2007. 
Image: Stock.XCHNG
Swedish researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of e-textiles. They've turned fabric fibres into miniature circuits by coating them with plastic that can conduct electricity.
By linking these plastic-covered fibres together at crossover points, the scientists made miniature transistors. Transistors are the building blocks of circuits - regulating the electricity that flows and acting as simple on/off switches.
This drawing shows what the fabric looks like up close: the orange threads are plastic-coated and the red dots are the transistors.
Image: Mahiar Hamedi
Transistors aren't usually made of plastic. Most are made of silicon, such as those inside your average computer. But these types of transistors aren't much good for incorporating into clothes because they're not very elastic.
Plastic circuits are cheap and hard-wearing. 'Once we coated the nylon threads we were able to treat them very similarly to how you treat regular nylon, using the threads to sew or weave,' explains Mahiar Hamedi, the fabric's lead researcher.
'We made a fabric where the conducting nylon threads crossed each other in a mesh. Then, we joined these junctions together to create transistors. The result was a cloth containing a number of conducting threads and transistors which acted just like an electronic circuit.'
Mahiar Hamedi, lead researcher on electronic textiles, Linkopings University, Sweden
'Making these circuits out of plastic means that in future we'll be able to weave cheap, advanced electronic cloth for the same cost as nylon today, and using conventional textile manufacturing techniques.
'Applications of this technology could be only five to ten years away, and some prototypes will come even sooner. We'll have clothes that actively regulate temperature and moisture, that can communicate with other electronic devices and that can even act as batteries,' says Mahiar Hamedi.
Susan Mossman, Plastics Curator at the Science Museum sees other advantages to e-textiles: 'Electronics in clothing will mean we won't have to carry around so many gadgets,' she explains. 'They'll be integrated into what we wear. Will we have a different-styled phone or iPod according to our mood?'
Susan Mossman, Plastics Curator, Science Museum