title: Novel wireless-communicating textiles made from multi-material and minimally-invasive fibers.
abstract: The ability to integrate multiple materials into miniaturized fiber structures enables the realization of novel biomedical textile devices with higher-level functionalities and minimally-invasive attributes. In this work, we present novel textile fabrics integrating unobtrusive multi-material fibers that communicate through 2.4 GHz wireless networks with excellent signal quality. The conductor elements of the textiles are embedded within the fibers themselves, providing electrical and chemical shielding against the environment, while preserving the mechanical and cosmetic properties of the garments. These multi-material fibers combine insulating and conducting materials into a well-defined geometry, and represent a cost-effective and minimally-invasive approach to sensor fabrics and bio-sensing textiles connected in real time to mobile communications infrastructures, suitable for a variety of health and life science applications.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. sgorgutsa@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Stepan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gorgutsa
authors.affiliation: Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bélanger-Garnier
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, École de Technologie Supérieure, Montreal, QC H3C 1K3, Canada. Bora.Ung@etsmtl.ca.
authors.forename: Bora
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ung
authors.affiliation: Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. jfviens@copl.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Viens
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. Benoit.Gosselin@gel.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gosselin
authors.affiliation: Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. Benoit.Gosselin@gel.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: LaRochelle
authors.affiliation: Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers (COPL), Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada. younes.messaddeq@copl.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Younes
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Messaddeq
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory; D017216:Telemedicine; D013784:Textiles; D059015:Wireless Technology