Textile electronics for wearable applications

Abstract Textile electronics have become an indispensable part of wearable applications because of their large flexibility, light-weight, comfort and electronic functionality upon the merge of textiles and microelectronics. As a result, the fabrication of functional fibrous materials and the integration of textile electronic devices have attracted increasing interest in the wearable electronic community. Challenges are encountered in the development of textile electronics in a way that is electrically reliable and durable, without compromising on the deformability and comfort of a garment, including processing multiple materials with great mismatches in mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties and assembling various structures with the disparity in dimensional scales and surface roughness. Equal challenges lie in high-quality and cost-effective processes facilitated by high-level digital technology enabled design and manufacturing methods. This work reviews the manufacturing of textile-shaped electronics via the processing of functional fibrous materials from the perspective of hierarchical architectures, and discusses the heterogeneous integration of microelectronics into normal textiles upon the fabric circuit board and adapted electrical connections, broadly covering both conventional and advanced textile electronic production processes. We summarize the applications and obstacles of textile electronics explored so far in sensors, actuators, thermal management, energy fields, and displays. Finally, the main conclusions and outlook are provided while the remaining challenges of the fabrication and application of textile electronics are emphasized.