Advanced textile-integrated thermoelectric energy harvesting for wearable electronics

"Smart wearables are becoming increasingly pervasive, driven by sustained advances in miniaturisation of electronics, improvements in sensors and connectivity, and growing capability to embed electronics in a variety of products. For example, smart glasses and smartwatches are now widely available. Smart garments are also appearing on the market: OMSignal market garments that monitor heart rate, steps taken and breathing depth, which is washable once the microprocessor has been detached; Athos market a biometric shirt with integrated sensors to measure muscle activity, whereby wiring is encapsulated and docking station enables wireless data transfer for analysis.

Wearable energy-harvesting devices first appeared almost 100 years ago, with the self-winding wrist-watch (itself based on the self-winding pocket watch that first appeared in the late 1700s). Given this context, it is perhaps surprising that the uptake of energy harvesting technologies has been slow in the market for wearable electronics. However, we believe this is set to change.


The next generation of wearable electronics will include garments whereby the electronics are embedded within the textiles. These will be powered by energy-harvesting technologies that are also embedded into the textiles. Through this project, we will create flexible, durable and comfortable textiles that will power future wearable technologies."