Wearable systems put high demands on wearability and robustness. Conductive fabrics are very likely to be used in wearable systems due to their textile-like characteristics. However conductive fabrics must be able to resist environmental stresses (wearing, laundering, etc.) in the same way as clothing in order to fully comply with the requirements.

A demonstrator, TxWear, was constructed to exploit conductive fabrics in building a conductive textile transmission line for intermodular communication and power transmission (DC power line communication bus), thus eliminating the need for cables between the modules. The hardware modules are connected to the conductive line through connectors from textile industry, i.e., snap fasteners. Different types of conductive fabrics (Ni/Cu plated polyester fabrics and stainless-steel based elastic ribbon) were evaluated and compared according to their conductivity, flexibility and robustness characteristics. The effect of washing on the electrical properties (per-unit-length parameters) of the textile transmission line was studied. Different coating processes, i.e., parylene and silicone coating, were studied and evaluated in order to isolate and enhance the robustness of the conductive textile. Ni/Cu plated polyester ripstop fabric was found to be not appropriate for wearable applications, while conductive elastic ribbon showed good robustness to laundry induced stresses.