New Standard for Electronic Textiles - IPC-8921
7. January 2020
IPC Association issued an IPC-8921, Requirements for Woven and Knitted Electronics Textiles (E-Textiles) Integrated with Conductive Fibers, Conductive Yarns and/or Wires.
IPC-8921 establishes classifications and designations for woven and knitted e-textiles integrated with e-fibers, e-yarns and e-wires. It also standardizes key characteristics and durability testing for these materials as well as the industry test methods to be used to test against those characteristics.
Key characteristics:
- electrical resistance
- electromagnetic immunity
- thermal conductivity
- coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE)
- specific heat capacity
- thermal shock resistance
- out-gassing
- glass transition temperature (Tg)
- melting point.
IPC-8921 also includes 20 new terms and definitions for e-textiles and establishes quality assurance provisions and test frequencies for specific characteristics. Incorporating these designations, characteristics, test method requirements and testing frequencies provides the e-textiles industry a level playing field. Product designers and manufacturers now have a consensus industry standard for gathering comparative data between different materials and suppliers to procure the woven and knitted e-textiles that will meet their needs.
