Mechanical Testing of Electrotextile Cables and Connectors
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D3.2.1
Mechanical Testing of Electrotextile Cables and Connectors Jeremiah Slade, Dr. Patricia Wilson, Brian Farrell, Justyna Teverovsky, Douglas Thomson, Jeremy Bowman, Marty Agpaoa-Kraus, Foster-Miller, Waltham, MA 02451, U.S.A.; Wendy Horowitz, Edward Tierney, C.M. Offray, Watsontown, PA 17777, U.S.A.; Carole Winterhalter, U.S. Army Soldier Systems, Natick RD&E Center, Natick, MA 01760-5019, U.S.A. Abstract Today’s complex geo-political climate has forced the U.S. armed services into new operational strategies. The prevalence of international terrorism, the threat from chemical and biological weapons, and the pressure to “do more with less” has placed increasing demands on the military. This new operational environment requires highly mobile troops having enhanced decisionmaking capability provided through the rapid transfer and dissemination of information to each member of the squad. What is missing is the ability to process and use this information via an Intranet at the level of the individual soldier. The purpose of our work has been to develop, evaluate and implement such a wearable conductive network for the dismounted soldier. Introduction Initial attempts to incorporate USB functionality into a textile format resulted in Foster-Miller’s USB v1 cable. For this first cable the USB specifications were strictly adhered to in order to assess the feasibility of this approach: ● ● ● ●
Data Transmission Medium: 28 AWG Twisted Copper Pair Data Rate: 1.5, 12 & 480 Mb/s Power Wires: 28 to 20 AWG Copper Pair Shielding: Aluminum Metalized Polyester
Once it was shown that electrical conductors could be woven into standard textile structures Foster-Miller made a USB v2 cable that improved upon the textile compatibility of the electrical components used in v1. The resulting cables provide all the electrical functionality of a standard USB cable with the added comfort and flexibility of a pure narrow woven textile. Table 1 shows the results of Group 6 signal integrity tests performed on specimens of USB v1 and v2. Table 1: Group 6 Signal Integrity Test Results Test Examination Impedance Attenuation
Requirements
No Damage 76.5 to 103.5 3.2 db & 5.8 db max between 200 & 400 MHz Propagation Delay 5.2 nS/m max Propagation Delay Skew 100 pS max Capacitive Load 200 to 450 pF Shielding Effectiveness 20 dB between 30 Mhz and 1 Ghz
USB v1
USB v2
Pass Pass Pass
Pass Pass Pass
Pass Pass Pass Pass
Pass Pass Pass Pass
D3.2.2
Experimental Details Once the cable design had been qualified we began to look at mechanical testing. Given the demanding nature of the environment in which a soldier worn personal area network must operate the narrow woven bus must be extremely rugged and able to operate after continued abuse. It was decided that tensile strength, tensile fatigue life, bending fatigue life and abrasion resistance were the most important mechanical properties for these cables. Figure 1 shows the experimental setup used to test both tensile fatigue and tensile strength. Tensile fatigue tests were carried using a load
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