Commercialization Opportunities and Strategies for Printed, Flexible, Stretchable and Functional Fabric Sensors in Wearables and Other Applications
29 Jun 17
10:00 AM
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10:50 AM
Tracks:
Flexible & Wearable
In recent years, there has been an exponential growth in the field of flexible, printed and organic large-area electronics and sensors. These new printed electronics and sensors are fabricated on flexible plastic substrates as well as on/in fabrics, which offer advantages such as mechanical flexibility, shape conformity, light weight and low profile. The judicious use of these substrates/carrier platforms enables low-cost and high-speed manufacturing of devices over large areas using printing technologies in a Roll-to-Roll production line. Targeted applications include wearables, environmental monitoring and eHealth.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarded $75M to FlexTech Alliance to establish and manage a San Jose-based facility to create a Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE MII). Additionally, the recent award of $75M, also by the US DoD, with $250M in matching grants from regional governments,industry and academia for the creation of a research and development consortia, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), headed by MIT for the development of sensors and other electronic functions has validated the potential of this technology to create “smart fabrics” for consumer and military wearable applications.
The presentation will provide an overview of printed, flexible, stretchable, functional fabric sensors and accompanying electronics and the applications that they are currently enabling as well as their future application opportunities. Examples from current suppliers as well as highlights from leading international research organizations will be addressed.
In addition to these sensors, we will also address the challenges of their integration with other functional element of basic Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable applications. We will also address the manufacturing issues to create these heterogeneous and hybrid solutions from both a batch mode and continuous process. Finally, barrie