Reversible Contacting For Smart Textiles

Smart textiles include integrated sensors and actuators, which are connected to electronics to read or control. Various ways of connecting electronics to textiles exist. In this chapter, we will give an overview of these electronics-to-textile connector prototypes. While the different connection types have advantages and disadvantages, there is a trade-off between the size and the number of connections. The electronics can be fabricated with pitches of 0.2 mm, but the textile part has lower limits on the size given by the textile fabrication processes such as stitching and weaving. The connection can be fixed, which implies better reliability and less rigid components, or removable, which allows the separation of textile and electronics for charging or washing.