Loading Up on PASTA Could Yield Smart Textiles for Healthcare Monitoring

The nanoelectronics research group imec (Leuven, Belgium) has announced the program launch of the integrating platform for advanced smart textile applications, or PASTA. The program will focus on the development of large-area smart textiles, which could someday help to advance textile-based healthcare monitoring applications.

"Large-area manufacturability is an essential aspect in bridging the gap between lab prototyping and the industrial manufacturing of smart textiles," according to imec.

In order to bridge that gap, however, the scientists will examine electronic packaging, interconnection technology, and textiles to assess how best to optimize electronics integration into the materials. Methods that will be explored for optimizing integration include the use of ultrasmall LEDs and multichip modules, among others. "Moreover, a system design task will tackle the power distribution and system partitioning aspects to provide a complete solution for integration of a distributed sensor/actuator system in fabric," imec states.

Primary objectives of the PASTA program include the development of a micromachining technique that enables bare die integration into yarn, the creation of an interconnect technology that involves mechanical crimping, and the establishment of a stretchable interposer to provide stress relief between the rigid component and elastic fabric.