Highly Sensitive Textile Strain Sensors and Wireless User-Interface Devices Using All-Polymeric Conducting Fibers

Abstract

Emulation of diverse electronic devices on textile platform is considered as a promising approach for implementing wearable smart electronics. Of particular, the development of multifunctional polymeric fibers and their integration in common fabrics have been extensively researched for human friendly wearable platforms. Here we report a successful emulation of multifunctional body-motion sensors and user-interface (UI) devices in textile platform by using in situ polymerized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT)-coated fibers. With the integration of PEDOT fibers in a fabric, via an optimization of the fiber pattern design, multifunctional textile sensors such as highly sensitive and reliable strain sensors (with maximum gauge factor of ∼1), body-motion monitoring sensors, touch sensors, and multilevel strain recognition UI devices were successfully emulated. We demonstrate the facile utilization of the textile-based multifunctional sensors and UI devices by implementing in a wireless system that is capable of expressing American Sign Language through predefined hand gestures.

Keywords: PEDOT; conducting fiber; in situ polymerization; textile sensor; wireless.