US 11,969,030 B2
Integrity monitoring for flexible material
Emre Ozer, Buckden (GB); Jedrzej Kufel, Soham (GB); James Edward Myers, Great Wilbraham (GB); Remy Pottier, Grenoble (FR); and John Philip Biggs, Cambridge (GB)
Assigned to Arm Limited, Cambridge (GB)
Filed by Arm Limited, Cambridge (GB)
Filed on Dec. 6, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/543,070.
Prior Publication US 2023/0172287 A1, Jun. 8, 2023
Int. Cl. A41D 1/00 (2018.01); A41D 19/015 (2006.01); A61F 6/04 (2006.01); G01R 31/28 (2006.01)
CPC A41D 1/002 (2013.01) [A41D 19/015 (2013.01); A61F 6/04 (2013.01); G01R 31/2812 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A wearable item comprising:
a flexible base material forming at least a portion of the wearable item;
plural conductive traces traversing the flexible base material; and
conductivity sensing circuitry coupled to the plural conductive traces, wherein the conductivity sensing circuitry is configured to distinguish conductivity from non-conductivity of the plural conductive traces, and configured to generate a conductivity indication for at least one of the plural conductive traces,
and wherein the plural conductive traces follow indirect paths across the flexible base material, such that a conductive trace traversing the flexible base material from a first point to a second point has a trace length which is greater than a direct distance between the first point and the second point,
wherein the plural conductive traces comprise a first set of conductive traces and a second set of conductive traces, and wherein the conductivity sensing circuitry comprises:
driver circuitry configured to apply a test current to the first set of conductive traces;
readout circuitry configured to detect a current flow in the second set of conductive traces; and
control circuitry configured to control a set of trace connection switches, each trace connection switch arranged selectively to couple a pair of conductive traces comprising a first conductive trace of the first set of conductive traces and a second conductive trace of the second set of conductive traces,
wherein the conductivity sensing circuitry is configured to generate the conductivity indication for the pair of conductive traces.