IPC E-Textiles A-Teams

Smarties
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8981, Quality and Reliability of E-Textiles Wearables and new IPC Test Methods for reference from IPC-8981.

Terminators
This A-Team collected the draft content for IPC-8981 and its associated IPC Test Methods from the Smarties team volunteers and is preparing all the draft documents for commenting by applicable task groups.

Fabricators
This A-Team is developing the working draft content for IPC-8921A, Requirements for Woven, Knitted and Braided Electronic Textiles (E-Textiles) Integrated with Conductive Yarns and/or Wires. The A-Team is also working closely with the Smarties and Terminators teams to be sure there is alignment in testing methodologies between integrated textiles and those serving as the basis for full systems.

Wearablist
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8961, Guideline on E-Textiles Wearables for review and comments by the IPC D-75a E-Textiles Wearables Standard Task Group.

Traceblazers
In 2022, this A-Team completed its work on IPC-8952, Design Standard for Printed Electronics on Coated or Treated Textiles and E-Textiles.

Jabil Circuit Sdn. Bhd.

29 years

It started in the year 2014, when Jabil Manufacturing Technology and Innovation group was working on a plastic electronics assembly process for an in-mold electronics (IME) washer control panel that embedded an in-mold label (IML) screen printed with capacitive touch electronics sensors and assembled with LEDs on a flexible polymer film.

We won the IMDA Awards Competition for the Best Prototype Part, Gold Award - Jabil for IME Washing Machine Control Panel in 2016 (https://www.plasticstoday.com/packaging/mold-decorating-association-presents-2016-winners-parts-competition).

These efforts continued on to stretchable electronics applications where I patented two designs – Adhesive Circuit Patterning Process (https://patents.google.com/patent/US20200267844A1/en) and Apparatus, system, and method of providing a ramped interconnect for semiconductor fabrication (https://patents.google.com/patent/US20220093424A1/en) to support plastic electronics development in Jabil.

Stretchable electronics evolved to e-textiles, which use almost the same processes and techniques, enabling us to make more wearable, conformal and integrated products with electronic devices with greater functionality.

To assist in establishing the standard operating procedures and design guidelines/environments and combining novel designs, materials, substrates and equipment to create novel functional structures/stack-ups.

IPC's effort to standardise all the assembly, testing and qualification that align with the industry roadmap will facilitate e-textiles technology growth.

I have worked in the manufacturing sector for over 29 years, and I am currently the principal engineer at Jabil Malaysia, helping to drive new technology innovations and megatrends. My competencies are supported by 10 years of advanced assembly, flexible hybrid electronics and 19 years of surface mount technology (SMT) manufacturing experience covering chip-on-board (microelectronics), optic splicing, mechanical assembly of semiconductor tester, direct fulfilment system setup, process mechanization, plastic molding, tester equipment design and metal stamping.

I enjoy monochrome photography, motorsports and travelling.

Smarties
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8981, Quality and Reliability of E-Textiles Wearables and new IPC Test Methods for reference from IPC-8981.

Terminators
This A-Team collected the draft content for IPC-8981 and its associated IPC Test Methods from the Smarties team volunteers and is preparing all that documentation for final review by Smarties before opening to applicable task groups for comments.

Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM / Technical University Berlin

Four years in industry as an e-textile researcher in the working group System on Flex at TU Berlin / Fraunhofer IZM

I first heard about e-textiles during my studies when we had the opportunity to create an interactive cycling jacket during a semester project. I really liked the interdisciplinary and innovative aspects of e-textiles. On the other hand, I am also somewhat critical of ubiquitous computing in general and e-textiles in particular (especially because of sustainability reasons) and think it is important to differentiate when an e-textile is really beneficial and when a regular electronic device that has fewer reliability issues suffices.

Among those issues, washability is a key requirement if the e-textile is wearable. As washability often still falls short of the expectations, I am focusing on improving e-textile washability (also for my PhD dissertation), a topic that will probably keep me busy for the next few years at least. Apart from that, e-textiles are a very dynamic and innovative field with such a wide range of applications that it never gets boring.

I think standardization is an important tool in the development of high-quality products and just as important in the communication of that quality to users. New and interdisciplinary fields like e-textiles often still lack such standards and I am happy to help create them to make future e-textiles more reliable and robust. On a personal note, I also enjoy the ongoing exchange with other experts from all over the world on topics that not only interest my but are important for my work.

The standards will contribute to creating a much-needed framework for e-textile development and will enable industry users to achieve better and more reliable products. The work of the IPC will also bring the different players (from electronics, textiles, and other application-specific fields) in the e-textile industry closer together and will create a (much needed) better understanding of the respective other side of things.

Even though I already work with textiles, I do not get bored by them and enjoy sewing, knitting, weaving and other craftier aspects of textiles in my free time. I never owned a car and thus cycle a lot, not only because I think a mobility turnaround is necessary but also because it is great fun – especially since the area around Berlin where I live is rather flat and great for cycling. I also like to cook (and eat) and grow some of my own food in our garden. When Berlin gets boring (it rarely does), I enjoy travelling – mostly around Europe, kayaking or hiking.

Smarties
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8981, Quality and Reliability of E-Textiles Wearables and new IPC Test Methods for reference from IPC-8981.

Terminators
This A-Team collected the draft content for IPC-8981 and its associated IPC Test Methods from the Smarties team volunteers and is preparing all that documentation for final review by Smarties before opening to applicable task groups for comments.

Wearablist
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8961, Guideline on E-Textiles Wearables for review and comments by the IPC D-75a E-Textiles Wearables Standard Task Group.

E-Textiles and Wearables; Guelph, Canada

I have been in the industry for eight years. For almost five years, I have been a Tech Lead for multiple projects at one of the world's largest e-textiles manufacturers (The Wearable Technology team of Twinery now known as Softmatter).

More recently, I spent three years in academia at the University of Calgary, Canada, researching wearable applications to identify ACL injury vulnerabilities of athletes.

I became interested in e-textiles when I was studying Textile Engineering for my bachelor's degree. For my final-year research project, I collaborated with two other friends to create a capacitively charged touch-sensitive fabric that can be used to control another device (just like a mouse does). It was similar to the well-known Google Jacquard but on a much smaller scale. However, as a result of this project, I realized the importance of knowing electronics in the development of e-textile products and went on to complete another bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering.

Then I joined the wearable technology team of Twinery (now Softmatter), one of the world's largest E-textile companies, and worked as a Tech Lead on multiple E-textile platforms and product developments with startups and a few Fortune 500 companies.

Some of the E-textile platforms on which I worked were,

• Heating
• Illumination
• Cooling
• Haptics
• Sensing
• Active compression
• Shape memory alloys for e-textiles
• Conductive pathways
• Interconnects
• Engineered knitting

In addition, I had the opportunity to work on a variety of e-textile products to improve their wash, dry, stretch, bend and twist durability. Some of the products I worked on as a tech lead won multiple awards (including gold awards) and special mentions at prestigious trade shows such as CES in the United States and ISPO in Munich.

For a variety of reasons, many e-textile products never make it past the final prototype stage. Some e-textile products progress to the mini-manufacturing stage, but only on rare occasions do products reach the mass manufacturing stage. In reality, most products die before they can be converted into manufacturable products.

I was fortunate to work on two e-textile products that made it all the way to mass production after years of development and are still on the market.

From all the failures and successes I clearly understood a few things

• How to minimize the risks in e-textile product development
• How to properly conduct e-textile failure analysis
• How to design and develop a better e-textile product
• How to make an e-textile product scalable

In 2020, I received a grant (We-TRAC) to work on wearable technology research at the University of Calgary. Hence, I joined U of C and investigated measuring knee joint angle with a single IMU sensor placed on the thigh or shank that can be embedded in a pant or socks. The goal of this study was to develop an e-textile product with the fewest sensors possible to identify ACL injury vulnerabilities in athletes by analyzing knee joint angles at touchdown.

These days, I primarily work as an E-textile Engineer for my own company, E-textiles and Wearables, which I co-founded with one of my long-time colleagues who is a pioneer in wearable technology product development.

We are currently working on one of our own products and collaborating or consulting with external companies and startups on product development and failure analysis.

In addition to that, I work as an e-textiles technical contributor for World Textile Information Network (WTiN), UK in their smart textiles channel.

IPC has assembled a group of world-class researchers, engineers and developers with extensive experience and a strong interest in e-textiles.

I'm involved in the IPC A-Teams because: from meetings and working on their standard development projects, I learn something new every time and have the opportunity to look at problems in e-textiles from a new perspective, as well as contribute to the future of the electronics textile industry, which I'm very passionate about.

Working in the industry for more than eight years with various companies and partners has taught me that there are barely any standards to follow when developing an e-textile product. Most companies attempt to modify and apply standards from the textile and electronics industries to e-textiles.

The problem with that is that different companies try to maintain their own set of standards, and there's no way to know if they're doing it correctly or if their products meet the quality standards required for use in different industries or consumer segments.

The risk is that as the e-textile industry is still in its early stages compared to its well-established siblings textiles and electronics industries, so if by any chance an e-textile product fails dramatically and harms a consumer, or if a product is not durable enough and consumers get a bad image of e-textiles, this can have implications for the entire e-textile industry, not just one company.  

Standards are the way to reduce that risk. We can improve product quality and reliability by standardizing certain aspects of E-textile product development, such as testing and manufacturing.

I worked as a digital music producer for a studio for a short time a few years ago. I wasn't very good at it, but I enjoyed using technology to create new sound products.

I'm currently blogging about the e-textiles industry and my experience in product development and e-textile failure analysis on LinkedIn, my website, and for World Textile Information Network (WTiN).

Fabricators
This A-Team is developing the working draft content for IPC-8921A, Requirements for Woven, Knitted and Braided Electronic Textiles (E-Textiles) Integrated with Conductive Yarns and/or Wires. The A-Team is also working closely with the Smarties and Terminators teams, to be sure there is alignment in testing methodologies between integrated textiles and those serving as the basis for full systems.

Hangin’ By A Thread
This A-Team is developing the working draft content of IPC/JPCA-8911, Requirements for Conductive Yarns for E-textiles Applications as well as several new IPC Test Methods to support the standard.

Smarties
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8981, Quality and Reliability of E-Textiles Wearables and new IPC Test Methods for reference from IPC-8981.

Terminators
This A-Team collected the draft content for IPC-8981 and its associated IPC Test Methods from the Smarties team volunteers and is preparing all that documentation for final review by Smarties before opening to applicable task groups for comments.

Wearablist
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8961, Guideline on E-Textiles Wearables for review and comments by the IPC D-75a E-Textiles Wearables Standard Task Group.

10 years (10 years in textiles and three of those years in e-textiles)

Textiles are very versatile, and they can be used in many different applications form nano to macro scales. The fact that they can be functionalized and interactive as wellness devices are the most interesting part for me. It is mainly because e-textiles or smart textiles can serve us in everyday life activity while we have them on.

IPC task group meetings are great learning platforms. Being involved in A-Teams has brought the opportunity to meet with industry leaders, professors, researchers, engineers, product developers and other dedicated individuals who contribute a lot in terms of knowledge and valuable points of view. The process of creating standards and test methods for e-textiles as a multidisciplinary field has challenges and it requires a focused group to make it happen.

It has been more than a decade that e-textiles and wearable devices have been introduced to us. However, there is still a gap between the consumer market and efforts from industry and academia. IPC standards can pave the way toward e-textile validation process and help the industry to introduce more products.

Watching Cosmos documentary over and over would never make me tired. I like to stay physically active through weight training or kick boxing. Finding new exciting ziplines is one of my favorite hobbies when I travel. I also like to read books on neurobiology and history. 

Smarties
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8981, Quality and Reliability of E-Textiles Wearables and new IPC Test Methods for reference from IPC-8981.

Terminators
This A-Team collected the draft content for IPC-8981 and its associated IPC Test Methods from the Smarties team volunteers and is preparing all that documentation for final review by Smarties before opening to applicable task groups for comments.

Hangin’ By A Thread
This A-Team is developing the working draft content of IPC/JPCA-8911, Requirements for Conductive Yarns for E-textiles Applications as well as several new IPC Test Methods to support the standard.

Fabricators
This A-Team is developing the working draft content for IPC-8921A, Requirements for Woven, Knitted and Braided Electronic Textiles (E-Textiles) Integrated with Conductive Yarns and/or Wires. The A-Team is also working closely with the Smarties and Terminators teams, to be sure there is alignment in testing methodologies between integrated textiles and those serving as the basis for full systems.

Eight years in academia split between art (Craft – weaving) and engineering (textile). I have been in the industry about eight years, starting in quality and testing labs, and working as a product and textile engineer.

When working on my BFA, I was amazed as some sensory and light textiles installations that would breathe, move, and glow with little interactions. May have literally at that point been chasing the twinkling lights in textiles that artist where integrating. I decided after that I wanted to understand more of the engineering of our everyday fabrics and the technology that was being integrated into them.

There is a lot of groundwork that needs to be completed to have this industry thriving, but only a finite number of resources allocated to the tasks. I wanted to aid in that endeavor.

The comradery of these groups drives this want as well. These teams are filled with passionate and extraordinarily talented individuals who are diverse in their proficiencies and expertise. They provide a multitude of unique perspectives and knowledge needed to complete our tasks.

These standards will serve as basis for customer and supplier to understand one another. Possibly, one of the most important tools that we in the industry need when making decisions on what materials to use is data. Data that are useful to us to speak to one another, such as the standardized data on performance. These standards will facilitate those conversations.

Tinkering may be the best way to describe my free time. I oscillate from miniature painting, small electronics and hardware synths. I have spent the better part of the last three years on Saturdays as a Game Master for a Dungeons & Dragons group running a campaign. Other than that, I enjoy hiking and the outdoors. I have sort of a problem when it comes to accruing hobbies. I spend most of my time with my partner, with the two of us tinkering on our own projects.

Smarties
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8981, Quality and Reliability of E-Textiles Wearables and new IPC Test Methods for reference from IPC-8981.

Wearablist

This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8961, Guideline on E-Textiles Wearables for review and comments by the IPC D-75a E-Textiles Wearables Standard Task Group.

I’ve been in the industry for about twenty-four years, including product development, manufacturing, R&D, and emerging business creation.

As a recent apparel design graduate, I unexpectedly came across the first IEEE Symposium on Wearable Computing at the MIT Media Lab back in October 1997. The highlight was a fashion show with collaborators from MIT and fashion design students from New York City, Paris and Tokyo. The runway creations merged fashion and textiles with body-mounted cameras, embroidered conductive keyboards, and wearable electronic musical instruments. It may not seem advanced now, but back then it completely reimagined computers from stationary beige plastic boxes to computing systems that could be wrapped about, thrown on the body and paraded down a runway. From that moment on, I decided to imagine textiles as digitally active and having the ability to upgrade human identity through the control of the material itself.

This experience expanded my whole concept of textiles, and I diverted from fashion into merging electronics with functional textile systems that I later redefined as Soft Systems Engineering. Soft Systems Engineering incorporates flexible electronics and smart materials that bring new functionalities and computation into a system. Through this work, I was fortunate to work with the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, scouting for novel textile methods to improve the lives of soldiers.  We developed specialized weaves that could sense unseen damages in multi-layer improved outer tactical vests (IOTV) / ballistic vests. We designed thin-film, fabric-based photovoltaic cells used for energy harvesting in rucksacks and embedded sensor arrays into microclimate cooling vests for adaptive thermoregulation.

With U.S. Special Operations Command, we engineered an e-textile base layer for the Tactical Light Operator Suit, which included full body vital sign monitoring (multi-lead ECG, HR, HRV, blood pressure, respiration, and skin temperature) and flexible hybrid electronics to carry the biosignals. The base layer was ultimately tied into a powered robotic exoskeleton, and we embedded EMG sensing into the textile encompassing the major muscle groups as a control input.

My current work is influenced by wearable robotics, particularly with ML and AI. With Betazip, we developed a robotic zipper platform to allow the donning and doffing of clothing via voice or an app on the phone for limited mobility applications. As the tools of computing influenced textiles through digitization, similarly robotics has influenced e-textiles by substituting or augmenting human actions through powered actuation and machine vision.

I enjoy the medium of e-textiles because since the very beginning they have inspired so many and offered abundant multidisciplinary opportunities and creativity.

I love the community and the friendly and passionate folks at the IPC. I’m able to connect and collaborate with like-minded researchers from around the world, and together we are contributing to maturing the e-textiles field.

I was the former Founder and Director of the Soft Systems (e-textiles) group for FLEX, one of the largest electronics manufacturing, supply chain and logistics companies in the world. E-textile development can be challenging for large companies because of the supply chain incompatibilities. Textiles have fibers and microfibers circulating in a factory environment. This type of material fragmentation needs to be isolated in an electronics supply chain, especially conductive fibers. There is also a gap in understanding for tolerance expectations. It's not uncommon to have a half-inch tolerance for textiles. Electronics tolerances are in the thousandth of an inch. I believe the collaborations between the e-textile industry and the IPC in the standard developments will support the growth of more novel supply chains that will support more innovative e-textile products and businesses.

Recently I’ve gotten into watching midnight movies at an old local Art Deco theater with my family. The theater shows cult classics like Repo Man, John Carpenter’s Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China and other cult favorites. It’s pretty nostalgic, the smell of buttered popcorn and an armful of candy, sitting with a bunch of movie-goers repeating clichéd dialogue and laughing at the not-so-special effects from the 1980s.

I also love exploring outer edges, National Parks, less-traveled towns or places like Burning Man to get outside of a regular perspective.

Smarties
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8981, Quality and Reliability of E-Textiles Wearables and new IPC Test Methods for reference from IPC-8981.

Terminators
This A-Team collected the draft content for IPC-8981 and its associated IPC Test Methods from the Smarties team volunteers and is preparing all that documentation for final review by Smarties before opening to applicable task groups for comments.

Thirty-one years in academia and many projects with industrial companies

I started to do research on e-textiles in the late 1990s. My scientific background is in electronics and system control, and as I got a position as an assistant professor at ENSAIT (textile college), naturally I developed my research activities around flexible textile sensors and actuators and smart textile structures.

I understood very quickly that the textile industry and electronics companies are not well accepting of each other, and their collaborations are necessary for e-textiles. Because of that, I believe that e-textile standards are necessary for both industrial sectors and that they can help e-textiles to spread and hit the market strongly.

I see IPC standards tremendously beneficial, because textile companies need electronic devices adapted to their products and the electronics industry needs to understand how to design and produce those devices.

I like the seaside, sea sports and activities, but also mountains and skiing. In summary, I love holidays.

Wearablist
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8961, Guideline on E-Textiles Wearables for review and comments by the IPC D-75a E-Textiles Wearables Standard Task Group.

Smarties
This A-Team is developing content for IPC-8981, Quality and Reliability of E-Textiles Wearables and new IPC Test Methods for review and comments by the IPC D-75b E-Textiles Wearables Guideline Task Group.

Five years in the industry, four years in academia.

I was working in the apparel industry when I got introduced to smart textiles. I was intrigued by their massive potential with the wide field of applications but also how much added functionality and value they can give to clothing and other textile products. I saw how this added value could expand textile products' lifespan by creating connections and personal stories with the consumer, thus, giving more value to the underappreciated textile industry.

The enormous potential of different e-textile applications is keeping my interest as an engineer together with my passion to create more meaningful and long-lasting textile products.

It is a great way to give input to e-textile standardization by also creating a large and diverse network of connections from different fields and countries. I am learning something new at every meeting!

Standardization is vital to the success of e-textile companies and products on the market and to define their limits for consumers. Industry input is highly valued by IPC standard groups. Thus, standards, handbooks and guidelines reflect the needs of the market and are highly significant.

I have loved travelling since I was young. I have lived in Germany and now live in Belgium. All of these experiences have enriched my knowledge and world views tremendously.