Surface functional electro-textile with functionality modulation capability, methods for making the same, and applications incorporating the same

• US 20060281382A1
• Filed: 06/10/2005
• Published: 12/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Textronics Incorporated (Adidas AG)
• Original Assignee: Textronics Incorporated (Adidas AG)
• Inventors: Burr, Stacey B., Coulston, George W., Karayianni, Eleni, Micka, Thomas A., Munoz, Eduardo
• Application Number:
  US11/150,525
• Publication Number:
  US 20060281382A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 442/181
• CPC Class Codes: D02G 3/32 Elastic yarns or threads ; Production of plied or cored yarns, one of which is elastic
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 1/0088 Fabrics having an electronic function
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 15/258 Noble metal
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 15/283 synthetic polymer-based, e.g. polyamide or polyester fibres cellulose-based artificial fibres D03D15/225
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 15/292 Conjugate, i.e. bi- or multicomponent, fibres or filaments
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 15/46 Flat yarns, e.g. tapes or films
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 15/49 textured chenille D03D27/18; curled; crimped
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 15/56 elastic
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 15/67 Metal wires
• CPC Class Codes: D04B 1/14 Other fabrics or articles characterised primarily by the use of particular thread materials
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2101/20 Metallic fibres
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2201/02 Cotton
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2201/04 Linen
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2211/02 Wool
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2211/04 Silk
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2331/02 polyamides D10B2331/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2331/04 polyesters, e.g. polyethylene terephthalate [PET]
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2401/061 elastic
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2401/16 antistatic; conductive
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2403/0114 with one or more yarns appearing predominantly on one face, e.g. plated or paralleled yarns for pile fabrics D03D27/00, D04B1/02, D04B21/02; for intarsia fabrics D04B1/126
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2403/02431 : with electronic components, e.g. sensors or switches
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2501/00 : Wearing apparel
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/038 : Textiles used as reinforcing materials for organic insulating substrates H05K1/0366
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/0281 : Conductive fibers
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/029 : Woven fibrous reinforcement or textile textile substrates H05K1/038
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 442/30 : Woven fabric [i.e., woven strand or strip material]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 442/3024 : Including elastic strand or strip
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 442/3976 : Including strand which is stated to have specific attributes [e.g., heat or fire resistance, chemical or solvent resistance, high absorption for aqueous composition, water solubility, heat shrinkability, etc.]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 442/40 : Knit fabric [i.e., knit strand or strip material]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 442/413 : Including an elastic strand
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 442/45 : Knit fabric is characterized by a particular or differential knit pattern other than open knit fabric or a fabric in which the strand denier is specified

Abstract

A surface functional electro-textile fabric incorporates energy-active, electrically conductive or optically conductive fibers and nonconductive fibers in a woven or knitted textile fabric. The weave or knit pattern is selected so as to form floats of the electrically conductive fibers on at least one surface of the electro-textile fabric. The electro-textile fabric can be incorporated into an antenna structure that interacts with high frequency electromagnetic radiation, particularly in the frequency range of DC to 100 GHz.

Claims

1. An electro-textile fabric, comprising:

non-conductive textile filaments; and

energy-active functional filaments woven or knitted with the non-conductive textile filaments so as to form the electro-textile fabric,

wherein said energy-active functional filaments are integrated within the electro-textile fabric such that floats of energy-active functional filaments are formed on at least a first surface of the electro-textile fabric.

2. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the functional filaments are in the form of at least one of fibers, yarns, slit strips and ribbons.

3. The electro-textile fabric of claim 2, wherein the energy-active functional filaments have at least one functionality or exhibit at least one property upon interaction with a form of energy.

4. The electro-textile fabric of claim 3, wherein the form of energy is at least one of electrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical, chemical or thermal.

5. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the floats of the energy-active functional filaments are distributed in parallel and oriented in horizontal directions.

6. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the floats of the energy-active functional filaments are distributed in parallel and oriented in vertical directions.

7. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the floats of the energy-active functional filaments are distributed at angles with respect to one another.

8. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein both the energy-active functional filaments and the non-conductive textile filaments are inelastic.

9. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the energy-active functional filaments are elastic and the non-conductive textile filaments are inelastic.

10. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the energy-active functional filaments are inelastic and the non-conductive textile filaments are elastic.

11. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein both the energy-active functional filaments and the non-conductive textile filaments are elastic.

12. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the first surface of the electro-textile fabric contains floats of the energy-active functional filaments while an opposite surface of the electro-textile fabric contains floats of the non-conductive textile filaments.

13. The electro-textile fabric of claim 12, wherein the first surface of the electro-textile fabric further contains floats of non-energy-active functional filaments.

14. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1 wherein both the first surface and an opposite surface of the electro-textile fabric contain floats of the energy-active functional filaments.

15. The electro-textile fabric of claim 14 further comprising floats of the non-conductive textile filaments.

16. The electro-textile fabric of claim 15, wherein there is an asymmetric number of energy-active functional filament floats and non-conductive textile filament floats on the surfaces, and the number of energy-active functional filament floats is higher than the number of non-conductive textile filament floats in both surfaces.

17. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the electro-textile fabric shields electromagnetic radiation in a range from DC to 100 GHz.

18. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the electro-textile fabric exhibits a high surface functionality on only one surface of the fabric.

19. The electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein the electro-textile fabric exhibits a high surface functionality on at least a first surface of the fabric.

20. The electro-textile fabric of Claim 1, wherein at least one of the non-conducting filaments and energy-active functional filaments form isolated electrical pathways in the electro-textile.

21. A capacitive switch incorporating the electro-textile fabric of claim 1.

22. A textile electrode incorporating the electro-textile fabric of claim 1.

23. A fiber optic structure incorporating the electro-textile fabric of claim 1.

24. An electromechanical actuator incorporating the electro-textile fabric of claim 1.

25. A transducer incorporating the electro-textile fabric of claim 1.

26. A resistive heating element incorporating the electro-textile fabric of claim 1.

27. A functional molecule delivery unit incorporating the electro-textile fabric of claim 1.

28. A textile antenna incorporating the electro-textile fabric of claim 1, wherein said antenna operates in a frequency range from DC to 100 GHz.

29. A method for forming an electro-textile fabric, comprising:

providing non-conductive textile filaments in a warp direction of a textile weaving apparatus;

providing energy active functional textile filaments in a weft direction of a textile weaving apparatus; and

weaving the filaments with a weave pattern that has at least 1/1 interlacing to form the electro-textile fabric, wherein floats of energy-active functional filaments are formed on at least a first surface of the electro-textile fabric.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the weave pattern is selected from the group consisting of:

satin, twill, rib, basket weave, double face construction, and any derivative based on these, and plain weaves.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein floats are formed and electrical pathways are isolated by selectively removing at least one of the energy-active functional filaments or the non-conductive filaments.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the energy-active functional filaments and non-conductive filaments are in at least one of the warp direction and weft directions.

33. A method of modulating functionality of an electro-textile fabric, comprising:

incorporating elastic non-conductive textile filaments into a weaving apparatus;

incorporating inelastic energy-active functional filaments into the weaving apparatus, wherein at least one of the non-conductive textile filaments and the energy-active filaments is elastic;

tensioning the elastic non-conductive textile filaments;

integrating the elastic non-conductive textile filaments and the inelastic energy-active textile filaments by weaving in accordance with a weave pattern; and

removing the electro-textile fabric from the weaving apparatus.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the weave pattern is selected from the group consisting of:

satin, twill, rib, basket weave, double face construction, and any derivative based on these, and plain weaves.

34. A method of modulating functionality of an electro-textile fabric comprising:

incorporating non-conductive textile filaments and energy-active functional filaments into a weaving apparatus;

Integrating the non-conductive textile filaments and the energy-active functional filaments by weaving in accordance with a weave pattern,

wherein at least one of the non-conductive textile filaments and the energy-active functional filaments is elastic; and

stretching and recovering the fabric during use.

36. A method of modulating functionality of an electro-textile fabric, comprising weaving or knitting non-conductive textile filaments and energy-active functional filaments into the electro-textile fabric;

and

incorporating a higher concentration of floats of energy-active functional filaments in one surface of the electro-textile fabric than another surface of the electro-textile fabric.

37. A method of modulating functionality of an electro-textile fabric, comprising weaving or knitting non-conductive textile filaments and energy-active functional filaments into the electro-textile fabric;

and

incorporating floats of non-conductive textile filaments between floats of energy-active functional filaments on a first surface of the electro-textile fabric.

38. A woven fabric antenna, comprising:

a woven electro-textile fabric having non-electrically conductive fibers in a warp direction; and

electrically conductive fibers in a weft direction,

wherein the electro-textile fabric exhibits a high conductivity in the frequency range of DC to 100 GHz.

39. The antenna of claim 38, further comprising floats of electrically conductive fiber segments on at least a first face of the electro-textile fabric.

40. The antenna of claim 39, wherein the electro-textile fabric has a first face and a second face, and wherein the first fabric face has a higher concentration of electrically conductive fiber segments than a concentration of floats of electrically conductive fiber segments on the second face.

41. The antenna of claim 38, further comprising floats of electrically conductive fiber segments on a first face and on a second face of the electro-textile fabric, and comprising floats of non-electrically conductive fiber segments on the first face and on the second face of the electro-textile fabric, wherein a higher concentration of floats of electrically conductive fiber segments are present on at least one of the first face and second face of the electro-textile fabric.

42. The antenna of claim 38, wherein the electro-textile fabric is woven according to a weave pattern diagram with an asymmetric construction in the number of warp and weft yarn segments.

43. The antenna of claim 42, wherein a ratio equal to the number of weft yarns density to the yarn density (weft+warp) is at least about 0.30.

44. The antenna of claim 38, wherein the warp fibers comprise elastic yarns.

45. The antenna of claim 44, wherein said elastic yarns comprise spandex fibers and a companion inelastic fiber, and wherein said companion fiber is comprised of polyester or fiberglass.

46. The antenna of claim 38, wherein the weft fibers comprise at least a single metal fiber having a diameter of at least 20 micrometers, said single metal fiber selected from at least one of copper, silver and silver plated copper fibers.

47. The antenna of claim 38, wherein the weft fibers comprise non-conductive fibers having a metallic coating thereon, wherein the metallic coating thickness is at least one of (a) equal to and (b) up to 5 times greater than a skin depth for the metallic coating at an electrical frequency of 1 Hertz (Hz) to 100 GigaHertz (GHz).

48. The antenna of claim 47, wherein a filament diameter of the non-conductive fibers is greater than 20 μ

m.

49. The antenna of claim 38, wherein the weft direction fibers comprise elastic electrically-conductive yarn.

50. The antenna of claim 49, wherein said elastic electrically-conductive yarn comprises spandex fibers surrounded by at least one electrically conductive yarn.

51. The antenna of claim 38, wherein both the warp and weft fibers are elastic yarns.

52. The antenna of claim 38, wherein said antenna has an electrical conductivity equal to or greater than 1×

10⁶ Siemens per meter in a range of 1000 megaHertz to 15 gigaHertz.

53. The antenna of claim 38, wherein the antenna is formed as a patch that includes a dielectric textile fabric comprising fibers selected from polyester and fused quartz.

54. The antenna of claim 53, wherein the antenna has an efficiency of equal to or greater than 80% at a frequency of 2.4 GigaHertz (GHz).

55. The antenna of claim 53, wherein the antenna has at least one additional useable multi-mode resonant frequency.

56. A method for increasing the electrical conductivity of a woven electro-textile fabric antenna wherein the antenna is formed at least in part in a weaving process, comprising the steps of:

tensioning warp yarn of the fabric during weaving on a weaving loom, wherein the warp yarn comprises elastic non-electrically conductive textile filaments and a weft yarn comprises electrically conductive textile filaments;

removing the fabric from the weaving loom; and

allowing the fabric to relax without applied tension.

57. The method of claim 56, further comprising the steps of:

treating the fabric with vapor;

applying heat to the fabric by at least one of heat setting and boiling water treatment; and

allowing the fabric to relax without applied tension.

58. The method of claim 56, further comprising the steps of:

changing a frequency response of the electro-textile fabric antenna by stretching and recovering the fabric.