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Nottingham Trent University to invest in fibre electronics

09 Jan '15

2 min read

Nottingham Trent University is set to share in £20 million of funding to begin manufacturing fibre electronics.

Researchers from the University’s Advanced Textiles Research Group (ATRG) will work with Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton on the project which has received funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop novel manufacturing methods for wearable technology, according to reports from the university.

£2.8million has been awarded overall to both universities with the ATRG at Nottingham Trent University receiving around £1.2 million.

The project will further ATRG’s work on embedding electronics, such as LEDs, sensors, and micro-controllers directly into yarns which can then be made into any number of products, from clothes to car seats, says reports.

The funds will allow the group to improve its product by making the yarns even finer, allowing production of things such as shirts with built in yet invisible sensors, micro-controllers and communication devices.

The funding for the four-year project, which starts in March 2015, will also enable Nottingham Trent University to develop the machinery it needs to begin a medium-scale manufacturing unit for the fibre electronics.

Professor Tilak Dias, who heads up the ATRG at Nottingham Trent University, said, “We are confident we have developed the platform technology for future electronic textiles and this project will build on the results gained to date by ourselves and ECS in order to revolutionise the way that smart and interactive textiles are produced. The end result will offer a greater level of functionality that is far beyond the state of the art.”

Stretchline, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Speedo, BSN Medical, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, International Automotive Components, Plessey Semiconductors, Urgo Ltd, the Centre for Process Innovation and MediCity, have also helped financially for the project. (GK)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India