CEA-Leti announced today that researchers Dominique Vicard and Jean Brun received the Avantex Innovation Prize for the use of the E-Thread® technology in textiles.
The award was presented June 10 during the award ceremony at the opening of the Techtextil and Avantex Symposia in Frankfurt, Germany.
E-Thread® yarn in a LED.
According to Avantex, the “innovation awards go to outstanding achievements in research, new materials, products, technologies and applications.”
E-Thread® is an innovative microelectronic packaging technology developed by Leti that allows for a direct connection of a chip to a set of two conductors, which can provide the functions of antenna, power and/or data bus.
This allows a 10x improvement in size, assembly time and reliability compared to classic microelectronic packaging. The E-Thread® assembly can then be incorporated inside a yarn and used by the textile and plastic industries using standard production tools. Electronics such as LEDs, RFIDs or sensors can then be truly integrated in materials and objects.
In choosing this technology for the innovation award, the Avantex jury said “electronics integrated in textiles during the textile processing and not simply by adding the components in a last step will be a significant step forward.” The jury also said the prize was awarded to “this development, as it shows that research and development is also for the textile industry of vital importance and that it can lead to the creation of new companies.”
E-Thread® is one of the technologies used within the European FP7 PASTA project (Platform for Advanced Smart Textile Application), and is the key technology asset of the Primo1D startup company, that will be created by Leti during the second half of 2013.
Vicard previously won a 40,000-euro startup award from OSEO, the French organization committed to supporting entrepreneurship, for proposing embedding electronic functions in textile yarns using the E-Thread® technology.
Samples of E-Thread® will be on display during the symposia, Hall 3.1, stand B11.
About CEA-Leti
Leti is an institute of CEA, a French research-and-technology organization with activities in energy, IT, healthcare, defence and security. Leti is focused on creating value and innovation through technology transfer to its industrial partners. It specializes in nanotechnologies and their applications, from wireless devices and systems, to biology, healthcare and photonics. NEMS and MEMS are at the core of its activities.
An anchor of the MINATEC campus, CEA-Leti operates 8,000-m² of state-of-the-art clean room space on 200mm and 300mm wafer platforms. It employs 1,700 scientists and engineers including 320 Ph.D. students and 200 assignees from partner companies. CEA-Leti owns more than 2,200 patent families.