These flexible semiconductor chips are as thin as human hair
What's the story
Chinese scientists have made a major breakthrough in the field of electronics by developing fully flexible fiber chips. These chips are as thin as human hair and come with integrated circuits embedded within stretchable strands. The new technology has a density similar to that of a home computer's central processing unit (CPU). The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.
Innovation
Fiber integrated circuit: A new era in electronics
The study, led by Peng Huisheng from the Chinese Academy of Sciences at Fudan University, introduced a novel electronic device called a fiber integrated circuit (FIC). Instead of creating circuits on rigid planar substrates, the team built functional circuits on an elastic substrate. This was then rolled into a thin fiber resembling a scroll. The result is an innovative technology that could revolutionize electronic textiles.
Advancement
A breakthrough in flexible electronics
The new FICs are as thin as a strand of human hair, but they pack a punch with a transistor density of 100,000 per centimeter. This is comparable to the industry standard of traditional very large-scale integration (VLSI), all while being fully flexible. The development marks a major step forward in the field of fiber-based electronics, which already support power supply and sensing functions.
Potential
FICs could power electronic textiles
The development of FICs opens up new possibilities for powering electronic textiles. These fibers can compute like chips or display information like transistors, effectively turning machine-washable cloth into a computer or television. This advancement is a major leap in the evolution of fiber-based electronics and could pave the way for more sophisticated applications in the future.