Research Centre

Centre for Flexible Electronics and E-Textiles (C-FLEET)

Microscopic_image_of _fabric

We bring together expertise working on flexible, stretchable functional materials for electronic systems.

About

We're researching soft, conformable materials for use in: 

  • personal monitoring and healthcare applications 
  • flexible energy-harvesting power supplies and storage  
  • industry 
  • agriculture 
  • civil engineering 
  • the marine environment 
  • the automotive sector 
     

Our current research areas: 
 

  • Flexible printed circuits: printed organic electrochemical transistors for multiplexing and switching applications developed on the WEARPLEX project
     
  • Soft smart materials: researchers in electronics and computer science (ECS) have a longstanding track record in developing smart materials that sense and react to certain stimuli such as mechanical forces, electrical signals or magnetic fields
     
  • Textile-based energy storage: textile structures provide a scaffold for supercapacitors and batteries to be integrated with the fabric
     
  • Printed functional inks for e-textiles: we have developed a range of co-compatible low temperature inks during the Microflex project for use on textiles
     
  • Textile-based energy harvesting: we have developed numerous techniques for harvesting ambient energy as an alternative integrated power supply
     
  • Integrated electronics in textiles: flexible filament circuits with a patent pending packaging approach for integrated into yarns and textiles (FETT project)
     
  • Flexible RF antennas: research covering the design, fabrication and testing of antennas and systems for RF energy harvesting and communication across a range of frequency bands
     
  • Green electronics: centre members are involved in a collaborative project with ARM looking at the design, materials and manufacture of printed and flexible electronics in order to aid re-use or ensure biodegradability

People, projects and publications

People