Electronic Textile Sensors for Decoding Vital Body Signals: State‐of‐the‐Art Review on Characterizations and Recommendations

Abstract

The digitization of textiles (textronics) has created new opportunities for integration with conformable sensors to enable unobtrusive, noninvasive, and continuous decoding of vital body signals. This article provides an in‐depth review of the materials and fabrication methodologies used for textronic sensors per their form‐factor in the textile manufacturing process chain—fiber, yarn, fabric, and apparel. Next, it analyzes the performance characterization techniques currently used for these sensors and highlights the needs for standardized test methods in the following aspects: biocompatibility, thermal and tactile comfort, aging, and operation of the biomedical sensing modality at standard human stretch. It also identifies the significance of pretreatment and conditioning reporting of the textile form‐factors based on their impact on mechanical and electric performance of the textronic sensor. The study concludes by recommending a universal testing roadmap for textronic sensors which is expected to veritably complement the work of different standardization committees, including CEN TC‐248/WG‐31, IEC TC‐124, ASTM D13.50, and AATCC RA111.

Keywords

• biomedical devices
• conformable devices
• flexible electronics
• quality control
• testing and characterization
• textile sensors