ISSCC 2003 / SESSION 22 / TD: EMBEDDED TECHNOLOGIES / PAPER 22.
22.1 Enabling Technologies for Disappearing
Electronics in Smart Textiles
Stefan Jung, Christl Lauterbach, Marc Strasser, Werner Weber
Infineon Technologies AG, Laboratory for Emerging Technologies, Munich, Germany
Today, the interaction of individual humans with electronic
devices demands specific user skills. In future, improved user
interfaces can largely alleviate this problem and push the
exploitation of microelectronics considerably [1]. In this context
the vision of smart clothes promises greater user-friendliness,
user-empowerment, and more efficient services support.
Wearable electronics recognizes and responds to the presence of
individuals in a more or less invisible way. It serves the human
individual in his needs thus making life much easier [2]. We
believe that today, the cost level of important microelectronic
functions is low enough and enabling key technologies are
mature enough to exploit this vision to the benefit of society. In
the following we present a packaging and interconnect technolo-
gy for deep textile integration of electronics, a silicon-based
micromachined thermoelectric generator chip for energy har-
vesting from body heat, and an interwoven antenna concept for
RFID labels for the identification of textiles.
An interconnect and packaging technology is demonstrated
using a polyester narrow fabric with several warp threads
replaced by copper wires which are coated with silver and poly-
ester. Six of those parallel conductive warp threads form one
lead. For the electrical connections the coating of the wires and
the surrounding textile material is removed by laser treatment.
The resulting holes in the fabric are then soldered with tiny con-
tact plates and thin bonding wires before the module is encapsu-
lated for mechanical protection (Fig. 22.1.1). Alternatively, the
bonding wires and contact plates are replaced by a thin flexible
printed circuit board (PCB), shown in Fig. 22.1.2. Here, the sub-
strate material of the PCB is attached to the polyester fabric
before soldering. The complete unit is molded forming a hermet-
ically sealed casing protecting it against mechanical and chemi-
cal stresses caused by wearing and cleaning the textile [3]. As a
demonstration a speech-controlled MP3 player system is realized
which is based on a DSP/µC-two-processor system [4]. The
demonstration system architecture shown in Fig. 22.1.3 is com-
posed of four units, all connected via the conductive textiles. The
audio module is a miniaturized PCB containing the audio chip
and several auxiliary elements. A detachable module contains a
rechargeable Li-Ion battery and a MultiMediaCard for data stor-
age, an earphone and microphone module, and a capacitive key-
board module. The user can control the music player either by
speaker-independent voice recognition or by means of the key-
pad. When integrating the proposed system into clothing, special
care is necessary for the textile design. The materials are chosen
according to maximum wear comfort and environmental compli-
ance. E.g., the audio module has been fully covered by garment,
so that the wearer still feels a textile touch.
A number of wearable devices such as small remote wireless sen-
sor units for medical applications dissipate only a small amount
of power. The human body produces several tens of watts of heat.
Miniaturized thermoelectric generators can harness part of this
energy and convert it into electrical power. These generators are
built of a large numbers of thermocouples, electrically connected
in series and arranged to make best use of a given area. They
consist of bars of different materials joined at one end. Due to the
Seebeck effect, a temperature difference between both ends gen-
erates a voltage and an electrical current through a connected
• 2003 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference
load. Most available thermogenerators are realized using com-
pound semiconductors such as bismuth telluride. However, those
are difficult to produce, not compatible with standard silicon chip
fabrication processes and non-disposable. They are thus not for
low cost applications such as wearables. In line with these argu-
ments silicon appears to be a better choice. Figure 22.1.4 shows
a cross-section revealing the micromachining technology [5].
Recently, a chip with 16,000 thermocouples on a silicon chip
measuring 7.0mm2 has been realized. Figure 22.1.5 shows the
output power measured as a function of the temperature differ-
ence between both sides of the chip. A quadratic dependence of
the output power versus the temperature difference ∆T occurs.
In order to obtain a large difference between the body and ambi-
ent temperature, a generator is integrated directly into the fab-
ric of the clothes with good thermal contact to the skin. It has
been found that an effective ∆T of up to 5K can be achieved [6].
For this value an output power of 1.6µW/cm2 is obtained and is
sufficient to power devices such as a wrist watch.
The concept of a transponder system using an RF ID chip and a
woven antenna coil structure is proposed. Applications include
the item management in laundries or in logistics supply chains,
and the protection of branded goods. Since RF ID tags are self-
contained systems that have only an antenna coil and a small sil-
icon chip connected to it, a hermetically sealed package can be
realized which has excellent properties in withstanding elevated
temperatures, pressures, chemicals, and mechanic stress. A
reader device emits electromagnetic waves at a specific frequen-
cy that is received and modulated by the tag. However, existing
RF ID antenna structures are not suited for the rough environ-
ment in textile applications. A conducting spiral can be realized
by connecting orthogonally oriented conductive warp and weft
threads in a fabric as in Fig. 22.1.6. By this means, the antenna
structure is fully embedded into the fabric in an unobtrusive and
robust way. The chip can be mounted by one of the integration
methods described above.
In conclusion, the convergence of microelectronics into novel
appliances such as 'wearable electronics' requires the develop-
ment of enabling key technologies. Three technology demonstra-
tors are proposed which consistently aim for improving the inter-
action between the human individual and information technolo-
gy. They open the way to promising scenarios like pervasive com-
puting that may lead to a completely new market of microelec-
tronic technologies in just a few years time.
References
[1] F. Boekhorst, "Ambient Intelligence, the Next Paradigm for Consumer
Electronics: How Will it Affect Silicon?,” ISSCC Digest of Technical
Papers, 2002.
[2] W.D. Hartmann et al, "High-tech-fashion,” Heimdall Verlag, 2000.
[3] S. Jung et al., “A Digital Music Player Tailored for Smart Textiles: First
Results,” Avantex Symposium, 2002.
[4] B. Burchard et al, "Devices, Software, their Applications and
Requirements for Wearable Electronics,” ICCE, 2001.
[5] M. Strasser et al, "Miniaturized Thermoelectric Generators Based on
Poly-Si and Poly-SiGe Surface Micromachining,” S&A A, 2002.
[6] C. Lauterbach et al, "Smart Clothes Self-Powered by Body Heat,”
Avantex Symposium, 2002.
0-7803-7707-9/03/$17.00 ©2003 IEEE
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Figure 22.1.1: Wire bonding concept for textile integration in a

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Figure 22.1.3: Schematic of the demonstration system. Figure 22.1.4: Silicon-based micromachined thermoelectric generator chip.

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• 2003 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 0-7803-7707-9/03/$17.00 ©2003 IEEE

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Figure 22.1.1: Wire bonding concept for textile integration in a polyester fabric.

• 2003 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 0-7803-7707-9/03/$17.00 ©2003 IEEE

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Figure 22.1.2: Alternative using thin flexible circuit board connector.

• 2003 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 0-7803-7707-9/03/$17.00 ©2003 IEEE

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• 2003 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 0-7803-7707-9/03/$17.00 ©2003 IEEE

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Figure 22.1.4: Silicon-based micromachined thermoelectric generator chip.

• 2003 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 0-7803-7707-9/03/$17.00 ©2003 IEEE

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Figure 22.1.5: Measured output power of the thermoelectric generator chip.

• 2003 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 0-7803-7707-9/03/$17.00 ©2003 IEEE

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Figure 22.1.6: Concept of a woven coil for a textile transponder system.

• 2003 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 0-7803-7707-9/03/$17.00 ©2003 IEEE