Embroidered Electronics for Wearable Sensors and Smart Clothing
Terry Ye
Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), China
Abstract: Most of today’s wearable electronic products are solid-state devices that are either attached to human bodies, or used as accessories on apparels. They do not feel natural to human, and they are often rigid, intruding and uncomfortable. Aesthetic wearable electronics and the integration to apparels has been an active research focus recently. Embroidered electronics and structures, i.e., using embroidering materials, structures, and process to implement electronic devices, will open a new paradigm for body area networks. As the devices being woven and embroidered with fibers and yarns and seamlessly built into daily clothes or fabrics, wearable electronics can be truly “wearable”.
In this presentation, we will demonstrate researches that utilize conductive fibers and other specially embroidered structures to achieve many electromagnetic functions that include antennas, sensors, energy harvesters and signal and power interconnects. Specifically, we propose several embroidered structures, the impedance and electromagnetic properties of these structures will vary with the change of ambient conditions, such as pressure, bending, twisting and stretching. Utilizing the proposed structures with NFC and RFID transponder chips, passive and battery-less sensing capabilities can be achieved. This research will provide a new platform and user experience for next generation wearable electronics.
Biography:Dr. Terry Ye is the Professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), and by courtesy, an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Ye is active in both academic research as well as industrial applications in many engineering areas that include IC Designs, Neuromorphic Computing ICs, Internet-of-Things (IOT) and Wireless Sensor Devices.
Dr. Ye received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and the Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University (Beijing). Prior to SUSTech, Dr. Ye had been the Professor of CMU-SYSU Joint Institute of Engineering since 2014, as well as the Director of Research and Technology Development of Hong Kong R&D Center for Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM) since the center’s inception in 2007. He also serves as the research fellow at the University of Hong Kong and the Chief Scientist of IOT Lab at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Beside his academic activities, Dr. Ye is keen on industry-academic collaborations. He had held various engineering and consulting roles in China Academy of Science, Impinj Inc, Synopsys Inc., Analog Device Inc., Magma Design Automation Inc., Silicon Architects Inc. and many other Silicon Valley companies.