Integrating Electronics to the Textiles by Ultrasonic Welding for Cable Driven Applications for Smart Textiles

Abstract

The connection between flexible textiles and stiff electronic components has always been structurally weak and a limiting factor to establish smart textiles in our everyday life. This paper focuses on reliable connections between conductive textiles and conventional litz wires by ultrasonic welding. It shows a promising approach to solve the mentioned problem. The electrical and mechanical performance of the samples were investigated after 15 and 30 wash and dry cycles in a laundry machine. Here the contact resistance and their peeling strength was measured. Furthermore, their connection properties were analysed in microsections. The resistance of the joints increased more than 300 %, because the silver coated wires suffered hard under the laundry cycles. While the mechanical strength during the peeling test decreased only about 20 % after 15 cycles and remained the same after 30 cycles. Ultrasonic welding shows good results for connecting textile electronics to conductive wires and to manufacture smart textiles.