Automated insertion of package dies onto wire and into a textile yarn sheath

Hardy, DA ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6028-7555, Anastasopoulos, I, Nashed, M-N ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3152-4320, Hughes-Riley, T ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8020-430X, Komolafe, A, Tudor, J, Torah, R, Beeby, S and Dias, T ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3533-0398, 2019. Automated insertion of package dies onto wire and into a textile yarn sheath. Microsystem Technologies. ISSN 0946-7076

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Abstract

Wider adoption of electronic textiles requires integration of small electronic components into textile fabrics, without comprising the textile qualities. A solution is to create a flexible yarn that incorporates electronic components within the fibres of the yarn (E-yarn). The production of these novel E-yarns was initially a craft skill, with the inclusion of package dies within the fibres of the yarn taking about 90 minutes. The research described here demonstrated that it is possible to produce E-yarns on an industrial scale by automating the manufacturing process. This involved adapting printed circuit board manufacturing technology and textile yarn covering machinery. The production process started with re-flow soldering of package dies onto fine multi-strand copper wire. A carrier yarn was then placed in parallel with the copper wire to provide tensile strength. The package die and adjacent carrier yarn were then encapsulated in a polymer micro-pod to provide protection from moisture ingress and from mechanical strain on the die and solder joints. The process was then completed by surrounding the micro-pod and copper interconnects with additional fibres, held tightly together with a knitted fibre-sheath. This prototype, automated production process reduced the time for embedding one micro-device within a yarn to six minutes, thus increasing the production speed, demonstrating that automation of the E-yarn production process is feasible. Prototype garments have been created using E- yarns. Further developments can include automated transfer of the yarn components from one stage of production to the next, enabling greater increases in speed of manufacture of E yarns.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Microsystem Technologies
Creators:	Hardy, D.A., Anastasopoulos, I., Nashed, M.-N., Hughes-Riley, T., Komolafe, A., Tudor, J., Torah, R., Beeby, S. and Dias, T.
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Date:	4 March 2019
ISSN:	0946-7076
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s00542-019-04361-y DOI
Rights:	This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Art and Design
Record created by:	Jill Tomkinson
Date Added:	06 Feb 2019 09:59
Last Modified:	12 Mar 2019 16:32
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/35767

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