Materials For Electronic Textiles

XS Labs is a design research studio based in Montreal, where we develop electronic textiles and reactive garments. We are concerned with the exploration of simple interactions that emphasize expressive qualities of electronic circuits and of the body. We define electronic textiles as “textile substrates that incorporates capabilities for sensing (biometric or external), for communication (usually wireless), power transmission, and interconnection technology to allow sensors or things such as information processing devices to be networked together within a fabric.”3 An important technical consideration comes from the fact that conductive materials used in traditional electronics, such as wires or printed conductive traces on a circuit board, need to be replaced with similarly conductive materials that can more easily be integrated into a textile. We replace some of the wires and other connections with different kinds of conductive threads that can be woven, stitched, or embroidered into the flexible textile substrate. Conductive threads are usually spun or twisted with conductive material (such as strands of silver or stainless steel).

Conductive threads and textiles
Since the field of electronic textiles is in its infancy, we have to be very creative in sourcing these conductive materials. When searching for conductive threads, we come across sources that include information for repairing fencing vest (which are conductive to aid in keeping score4) as well as suppliers who sell conductive textiles and threads used for electromagnetic shielding5. We have also found several American and European companies developing new and traditional metallic fibers for a variety of medical, aerospace, and industrial applications, such as Bekaert, a Belgian company that develops an array of high tech products in advanced metal transformation and advanced materials and coatings.6. We need to think outside the box and re-appropriate these products to create electronic textiles.