Textro-Interconnects®

Description

Elastic, flat cable that transmits electric current.
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Features

Flat, soft, and flexible and textile-like
Recoverable stretch from 0-200%
Washable and sew-able
Conductivity range tailored from insulating to conductive (<1ohm/ft)
Transmits power (<1 amp), audio, or data (up to approx. 10 Mbps)
0.5” to 14” wide
Uses commercial conductors and standard connectors
Available in custom lengths with connectors attached or as roll stock that can be cut to the desired length

Applications

Audio
Data and power bus
Disposable e-textile
Resistive heating wrap

When an electrically conductive pathway must be integrated into a fabric, an elastically conductive yarn is the material of choice. In such a situation, the yarn is serving as or behaving as a conductive pathway on a printed electronic circuit board.

However, it is often necessary to combine multiple electronic components to create a larger, more functional piece of hardware. A well-known example is the personal computer, where many pieces of electronic hardware, such as the motherboard, hard drive, and power supply, are connected by flexible ribbon cables. By combining multiple conductive pathways into a single component, the electronics industry has significantly reduced manufacturing costs and handles a multitude of signal-processing issues with a very inexpensive solution that has become a standard across the industry.

Our Textro-interconnects®
The need to connect multiple conductive pathways of various subsystems in a simple and inexpensive way is an issue that also exists when creating electro-textile system solutions. Our solution differs significantly because our Textro-interconnects® are fabric based and have elastic properties.

As with our conductive yarn platform, Textro-interconnects® can also support a wide variety of product variants. They can be used to propagate electrical power, audio signals, and data pulses through multiple embedded conductive pathways. Unlike traditional ribbon cables or other rigid (non-elastic) textile structures, this flexible and elastic substrate offers both comfort and ease of incorporation in extant fabrics.