Sensors 2014, 14(10), 19260-19274; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141019260
Novel Wireless-Communicating Textiles Made from Multi-Material and Minimally-Invasive Fibers
Stepan Gorgutsa 1,3,†
, Victor Bélanger-Garnier 1,3,†, Bora Ung 4, Jeff Viens 1, Benoit Gosselin 2, Sophie LaRochelle 1,2 and Younes Messaddeq 1,2,*
, Victor Bélanger-Garnier 1,3,†, Bora Ung 4, Jeff Viens 1, Benoit Gosselin 2, Sophie LaRochelle 1,2 and Younes Messaddeq 1,2,*
1
Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
3
Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics, Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
4
Department of Electrical Engineering, École de Technologie Supérieure, Montreal, QC H3C 1K3, Canada
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 26 August 2014 / Revised: 24 September 2014 / Accepted: 8 October 2014 / Published: 16 October 2014
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Miniaturized Wireless Biosensors)
Abstract
The ability to integrate multiple materials into miniaturized fiber structures enables the realization of novel biomedical textile devices with higher-level functionalities and minimally-invasive attributes. In this work, we present novel textile fabrics integrating unobtrusive multi-material fibers that communicate through 2.4 GHz wireless networks with excellent signal quality. The conductor elements of the textiles are embedded within the fibers themselves, providing electrical and chemical shielding against the environment, while preserving the mechanical and cosmetic properties of the garments. These multi-material fibers combine insulating and conducting materials into a well-defined geometry, and represent a cost-effective and minimally-invasive approach to sensor fabrics and bio-sensing textiles connected in real time to mobile communications infrastructures, suitable for a variety of health and life science applications. View Full-TextKeywords:
wearable antennas; multi-material fibers; bio-textiles
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
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MDPI and ACS Style
Gorgutsa, S.; Bélanger-Garnier, V.; Ung, B.; Viens, J.; Gosselin, B.; LaRochelle, S.; Messaddeq, Y. Novel Wireless-Communicating Textiles Made from Multi-Material and Minimally-Invasive Fibers. Sensors 2014, 14, 19260-19274.