General conclusion
Smart textiles: e-textiles – Integration and constraints

The design and manufacture of intelligent textile systems presents a definite challenge, as these complex systems are made up of textile substrates and elements that are soft, flexible, lightweight and resistant to washing and cleaning, while electronic components and devices have the opposite properties. What's more, in some cases these electronic devices are realized on flexible or even entirely textile printed circuit boards (textile motherboards). For all these reasons, it is particularly difficult to create reliable, high-quality, intelligent textile systems that meet market requirements, particularly in terms of resistance to washing. This explains and justifies the relatively low presence of these systems on the market, even though we are seeing more and more of them in professional applications such as the medical, military and security sectors.

Here we...