Donghua University develops new method for fabricating integrated circuit fibers

A research team from Donghua University in Shanghai has unveiled a new approach to fabricate integrated circuit fibers, opening up new possibilities for future embodied intelligence applications.

Led by professor Zhu Meifang and researcher Wang Gang, the team's findings were recently published in the journal Nature Electronics.

The development of embodied intelligence requires electronic systems to adapt to the complex shapes and dynamic movements of robots. Soft and flexible fibers can provide a new medium for integrating electronic functionality into these structures.

Textiles based on electronic fibers can be used to integrate sensing, processing and feedback into a single wearable platform. However, embedding circuit-level functionality directly into fibers remains challenging due to poor fiber utilization and unstable interconnects.

To tackle such challenges, the team reported a programmable microfluidic spinning process to fabricate integrated circuit fibers.

The approach combines conductive layers with different functional layers to create distinct modules capable of electron — photon conversion, electron — electron conversion, electron — ion carrier conversion and electro-quasistatic modulation, said the article.

By arranging and integrating these modules during microfluidic spinning, customizable circuits within a single fiber can be built. The fibers can then be woven, sewn and arranged into textiles, and can withstand repeated deformation and washing.

The approach can be used to create electroluminescent fibers for light emission, resistor and capacitor fibers for analogue signal processing, organic electrochemical transistor fibers for digital logic operations, and electro-quasistatic fibers for touchless sensing and control, according to the article.

The significance of this work lies not merely in the creation of several types of functional fibers, but in the establishment of a comprehensive design and fabrication methodology that integrates the spatial organization of functional materials, the construction of fiber-based devices, and circuit interconnections.

This new approach has made it possible to preserve the flexibility, sewability and weavability of fibers while providing combinable building blocks for various electronic functions. It is expected to open up new technological pathways for future wearable computing, flexible human-computer interaction, soft robotics, and embodied intelligence systems.