In recent years, there has been an exponential growth in the field of flexible, printed, wearable and organic large-area electronics and sensors. These new electronics and sensors are fabricated on flexible plastic or paper 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.
This session provides 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, this session also addresses the challenges of their integration with other functional element of basic Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable applications and the manufacturing issues to create these heterogeneous and hybrid solutions from both a batch mode and continuous process. Concluding presentation topics include barriers to the successful commercialization and recommended strategies for monetization opportunities of these technologies.