The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Integration of temperature sensors in fabrics

Integration of temperature sensors in fabrics
Integration of temperature sensors in fabrics
Temperature measurements are useful in the monitoring of foot ulcer and wound infections of diabetic patients, changes in skin or ambient temperatures and cardiovascular health evaluations for health applications. For improved wearability, e-textile garments design for such applications often require the temperature sensors to be completely enclosed within the fabric without compromising the fabric property and the sensor sensitivity or performance significantly. This poster reports the integration of temperature sensing filaments within a fabric structure using a textile weaving process is reported. The filament is inserted into bespoke pockets woven within the body of the fabric which conceals the electronic functionality from the user and does not compromise the physical properties of the fabric. The thermistor on the filament is also protected by flexible encapsulation consisting of one or a combination of a hot-melt thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyimide films (PI) and blends of polyester/cotton fabrics of varied thicknesses. In e-textiles, encapsulations enhance the durability and life-time of the integrated electronics but can also limit the sensitivity of an enclosed sensor to its measurand. Hence, the effect of these encapsulations on the thermal sensitivity of the thermistor is investigated. Experimental results show that encapsulated sensors enclosed with the fabrics are accurate to 80 % confidence interval of the un-encapsulated sensor measurement between 30 ºC and 75 ºC. Results also shows that reduced fabric and encapsulation thicknesses around the thermistor can improve the cooling time of the sensor by 40%.
IEEE
Komolafe, Abiodun
5e79fbab-38be-4a64-94d5-867a94690932
Torah, Russel
7147b47b-db01-4124-95dc-90d6a9842688
Tudor, Michael
46eea408-2246-4aa0-8b44-86169ed601ff
Beeby, Stephen
ba565001-2812-4300-89f1-fe5a437ecb0d
Komolafe, Abiodun
5e79fbab-38be-4a64-94d5-867a94690932
Torah, Russel
7147b47b-db01-4124-95dc-90d6a9842688
Tudor, Michael
46eea408-2246-4aa0-8b44-86169ed601ff
Beeby, Stephen
ba565001-2812-4300-89f1-fe5a437ecb0d

Komolafe, Abiodun, Torah, Russel, Tudor, Michael and Beeby, Stephen (2019) Integration of temperature sensors in fabrics. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Flexible and Printable Sensors and Systems (FLEPS). IEEE. 2 pp . (doi:10.1109/FLEPS.2019.8792294).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Temperature measurements are useful in the monitoring of foot ulcer and wound infections of diabetic patients, changes in skin or ambient temperatures and cardiovascular health evaluations for health applications. For improved wearability, e-textile garments design for such applications often require the temperature sensors to be completely enclosed within the fabric without compromising the fabric property and the sensor sensitivity or performance significantly. This poster reports the integration of temperature sensing filaments within a fabric structure using a textile weaving process is reported. The filament is inserted into bespoke pockets woven within the body of the fabric which conceals the electronic functionality from the user and does not compromise the physical properties of the fabric. The thermistor on the filament is also protected by flexible encapsulation consisting of one or a combination of a hot-melt thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyimide films (PI) and blends of polyester/cotton fabrics of varied thicknesses. In e-textiles, encapsulations enhance the durability and life-time of the integrated electronics but can also limit the sensitivity of an enclosed sensor to its measurand. Hence, the effect of these encapsulations on the thermal sensitivity of the thermistor is investigated. Experimental results show that encapsulated sensors enclosed with the fabrics are accurate to 80 % confidence interval of the un-encapsulated sensor measurement between 30 ºC and 75 ºC. Results also shows that reduced fabric and encapsulation thicknesses around the thermistor can improve the cooling time of the sensor by 40%.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 8 July 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 August 2019
Venue - Dates: 1st IEEE International Conference on Flexible and Printable Sensors and Systems, FLEPS 2019, , Glasgow, United Kingdom, 2019-07-07 - 2019-07-10

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 433147
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/433147
PURE UUID: 8a3e62df-aec7-4fd6-a499-ed888e5aa16c
ORCID for Abiodun Komolafe: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3618-2390
ORCID for Russel Torah: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5598-2860
ORCID for Michael Tudor: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1179-9455
ORCID for Stephen Beeby: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0800-1759

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 09 Aug 2019 16:30
Last modified: 18 Apr 2024 01:45

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Abiodun Komolafe ORCID iD
Author: Russel Torah ORCID iD
Author: Michael Tudor ORCID iD
Author: Stephen Beeby ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×