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. 2019 Oct 12;19(20):4426.
doi: 10.3390/s19204426.

Textile-Friendly Interconnection between Wearable Measurement Instrumentation and Sensorized Garments-Initial Performance Evaluation for Electrocardiogram Recordings

Fernando Seoane  1   2   3 , Azadeh Soroudi  4 , Ke Lu  5 , David Nilsson  6 , Marie Nilsson  7 , Farhad Abtahi  8   9 , Mikael Skrifvars  10
Affiliations

Textile-Friendly Interconnection between Wearable Measurement Instrumentation and Sensorized Garments-Initial Performance Evaluation for Electrocardiogram Recordings

Fernando Seoane et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

The interconnection between hard electronics and soft textiles remains a noteworthy challenge in regard to the mass production of textile-electronic integrated products such as sensorized garments. The current solutions for this challenge usually have problems with size, flexibility, cost, or complexity of assembly. In this paper, we present a solution with a stretchable and conductive carbon nanotube (CNT)-based paste for screen printing on a textile substrate to produce interconnectors between electronic instrumentation and a sensorized garment. The prototype connectors were evaluated via electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings using a sensorized textile with integrated textile electrodes. The ECG recordings obtained using the connectors were evaluated for signal quality and heart rate detection performance in comparison to ECG recordings obtained with standard pre-gelled Ag/AgCl electrodes and direct cable connection to the ECG amplifier. The results suggest that the ECG recordings obtained with the CNT paste connector are of equivalent quality to those recorded using a silver paste connector or a direct cable and are suitable for the purpose of heart rate detection.

Keywords: conductive polymers; smart textiles; textile–electronic integration; wearable technology.

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Conflict of interest statement

F.S. is the founder and owner of Z-Health Technologies A.B.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Lead interconnections in wearable instrumentation made in hard plastic from three different recorders: Hexoskin, Equivital, and Bodykom from left to right.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) The connector printed with multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-based paste; (b) the connector printed with silver paste; and (c) a schematic representation of a printed connector on the fabric with all its textile elements.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) The connector printed with multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-based paste; (b) the connector printed with silver paste; and (c) a schematic representation of a printed connector on the fabric with all its textile elements.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The sensorized garment with textile–electronic interconnector is worn by the test subject in (a). (b) Snap buttons on the sleeve for the connector were placed above the pocket for a wearable instrument. (c) Textile electrodes were sewn to the T-shirt interior, sensorizing the garment.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Surface resistivity vs. thickness of lines printed with MWCNT paste in the upper panel and residuals from the fitted function Surface Resistivity = 0.573601/Thickness.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Surface resistivity under elongation.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Printed conductive paste surface coatings: (a) the MWCNT-based coating; (b,c) the Conductor 5000 based coating. a and b are with 200 times magnification while c is shown with 10K magnification.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Five-second preprocessed ECG recordings obtained with the three setups.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Comparison of the averaged PQRST waves from a 15 s segment.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Spectrum content (upper panel) and cross-spectrum coherence (bottom panel) between ECG recordings obtained with gel and textile electrodes with the MWCNT connector vs. gel electrodes (a) and with gel and textile electrodes with the Ag connector vs. gel electrodes (b).
Figure 10
Figure 10
Regression plots of RR Intervals calculated from simultaneous ECG recordings: (a) gel electrodes with direct cable connection versus textile electrode using the MWCNT connector; (b) gel electrode with direct cable connection versus textile electrode using the silver connector.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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