News release

From: Springer Nature

A new method for making fibres with inbuilt electronics, which could be used in wearable electronics, is reported in Nature this week. Potential applications include hats that can sense traffic light changes, which could help visually impaired individuals, and flexible heart-monitoring devices.

Wearable electronics that can detect and process signals can be made from fibres that incorporate semiconductor devices. However, the fabrication process can introduce defects that limit the performance of these fibres. Lei Wei and colleagues assess the fibre manufacturing process to identify how fractures and defects arise. Using this information, they alter the processing techniques and the combination of semiconductors and fibre materials to produce high-performance flexible fibres with optoelectronic properties.

To demonstrate the capabilities of these materials, the authors make a range of experimental devices. For example, they knit the fibres into a hat that can sense light signals from traffic lights, which could provide assistance to visually impaired individuals. The light signals detected by the hat are transmitted to a cell phone that alerts the user when the lights change from red to green. The authors also weave the fibres into a wristband to make a wearable heart monitor with similar performance to commercially available devices, but with the advantage of fitting more closely to the wrist than rigid sensors. The fibres demonstrate durability under compression and are waterproof, making them suitable for underwater applications.

An advantage of this technology is its industrial readiness, notes Xiaoting Jia and Alex Parrott in an accompanying News & Views. “The instrument that fabricates the fibres includes a fibre-drawing device that is used to produce commercial optical fibres in the telecommunication industry. And once the fibres are generated, they can be knitted or woven into fabric using tools that are already used widely in the textile industry,” they write. They conclude that this work “takes a leap towards embedding micro-computers into everyday clothing”.