A novel technique for direct measurements of contact resistance between interlaced conductive yarns in a plain weave

Contact resistance between interlaced conductive yarns will under certain circumstances constitute a problem for sensor applications and electrical routing in interactive textile structures. This type of resistance could alter the effective area of the sensor and introduce hot-spots in the routing. This paper presents a technique for measuring contact resistances on fabric samples. The samples used are unit cells of plain weave, that is, two conductive (silver-coated) yarns in the warp direction and two in the weft direction. The numerical values for the contact resistance are of the order of R-c approximate to 0.3. A resistor network made of through-hole film resistors with known values is used for evaluation of the method. The results show that the technique provides values typically within +/- 1% error compared with the known resistor values. Thus, the method can be used in order to calculate the contact resistances of a woven conductive textile.