Fundamental analysis of embroidered contacts for electronics in textiles

Integration of electronics into textiles has been a growing topic in recent years. However, a reliable contact between conductive textile structures and electronics modules is still an insufficiently solved problem. One approach is to embroider the conductive textile right to the electronics. This research describes the constitution of the electrical contact and explains resistance changes during temperature variation. This is done by studying the thermo-mechanical and electrical behavior of the conductive yarn. Experiments are conducted with actual embroidered contacts. The interpretation of results has been confirmed by a simplified contact model. A theory describing the contact mechanism in embroidered contacts has been developed.