Welcome to the Future of Functional Fabrics
In the Fabric Discovery Center, you'll find all you need to model, design, fabricate and test integrated textile and flexible electronics. Develop fabrics and flexible electronics that are stain repellent, fire resistant, anti-bacterial, self healing, high strength, UV protective and more.
With support from three Manufacturing Institutes, UMass Lowell offers an integrated approach to developing advanced multi-functional materials and products. Current project examples include:
- Multi-functional Substrates and Printing Integration for RF Devices. Objective is to advance the manufacturability of printed RF electronics.
- Test Methods for Electronic and Mechanical Durability of Flexible/Rigid Interfaces in Multi-Axial Fatigue and Dynamic Loadings. Objective is to device testing protocols for application relevant environments and parameters.
- Flex-Hybrid Electronic X-Band Antenna Arrays for Next Generation of Deployable Antennas. Objective is to manufacture cylindrical phased array antennas as a cost-effective alternative to rotating dish and multi-panel phased antennae.
- Additively Printed Circuit Elements for Antenna & Microwave. Objective is to print antennas and microwave elements and test/validate them in a relevant environment.
- Fiber to circuit interconnect (microaward).
- Sensing Textiles for Civil Infrastructure Monitoring. Objective is to develop durable, functional fabric sensing system for strengthening and monitoring underground civil infrastructures.
- Flexible Circuits for LiFi Caps. Demonstrating a functional prototype of the circuit for the LiFi Cap on flexible substrates.
- Transparent and Conductive Fiber Electrodes. Design, fabrication and characterization of a transparent and conductive layer.
- Development of exoskeleton evaluation methods using biometrics and task performance, contributing to ASTM F48 committee.