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Fudan University researchers in Shanghai have built complex electronic circuits within the tiniest of spaces: a flexible fiber thinner than a human hair. They call it a “fiber chip,” and it’s been more than a decade in the making.
Scientists have been working for some time to embed this technology into textiles for unobtrusive connectivity. One of the hurdles has been getting complex electronics into small spaces like a single strand of cotton. And because computer chips, regardless of how small they can be made, are generally flat and inflexible, they don’t lend themselves to the natural feeling and behavior of a fabric.
Here, the scientists moved away from traditional surface-level wearable electronics and instead built circuitry in a layered, spiral form and placed that inside the actual ultra-thin fiber. In doing so, they were able to create their “fiber chip” that holds 10,000 transistors (the electronic switches that control current flow through a circuit) in just 1 mm of fiber.
For context, this is about the same processing capability found in a regular pacemaker. Lengthening that tiny strip of fiber to a meter (3.3 ft) and one could potentially have millions of these transistors, generating the processing power of a typical desktop computer.
“Our fabrication method is highly compatible with the current tools used in the chip industry,” said Chen Peining, a researcher at Fudan University’s Institute of Fiber Materials and Devices. “We have already achieved a way to mass-produce these fiber chips.”
As the team outlined in the study, the fibers are flexible like brain tissue, which opens up the possibility of them being used as biocompatible neurological tools, especially in the area of smart implants.
“The human body is made of soft tissue, so emerging fields like future brain-computer interfaces demand soft, compliant electronic systems,” Peng Huisheng, who led the study, told Chinese media outlet Xinhua. The fiber technology could then be used to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and stroke, or integrated into tools and used as precision sensors.
“Smart tactile gloves made with fiber chips are indistinguishable from ordinary fabric,” Chen said. “They can sense and simulate the feel of different objects, which could be used by surgeons to ‘feel’ the hardness of tissue during a remote robotic surgery.”
The team has tested the fiber, mimicking real-world treatment and wear and tear. The fibers withstood more than 10,000 cycles of bending and abrasion, stretched up to 30 percent, were easily twisted, and survived being washed 100 times. They also passed heat (100 °C/212 °F) and compression (to the equivalent of the weight of a 15.6-ton truck) tests.
Now, the team is working with a hospital in an effort to adapt the fiber chip for use in cardiovascular surgery. “We hope that one day electronic fabrics built on ‘fiber chips’ will exchange information as efficiently as today’s phones and computers,” Chen told Xinhua.
The research was published in the journal Nature.
SOURCE: Fudan University via newatlas.com