Do you know? Your clothes can be woven from electronic devices. Recently, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have made significant breakthroughs in wearable technology by successfully embedding high-speed optoelectronic semiconductor devices, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and photodiodes, into fibers and weaving them into washable flexible fabrics, achieving a communication system using fabrics.
This marks the achievement of researchers' goal of integrating semiconductors into textiles to create intelligent fabrics, while also filling the gap in complex functional fabric technology in the textile manufacturing industry. Researchers predict that this fiber will rapidly develop at an exponential growth rate in the coming decades. This research result is published in the journal Nature.
The traditional manufacturing method of optical fibers is to produce an enlarged version of the fiber as a prefabricated component, which is heated and softened, and then stretched under tension to obtain the fiber.
The key breakthrough in manufacturing new fibers is to aggregate a light-emitting semiconductor diode that is only the size of a sand particle and a pair of extremely fine copper wires into a prefabricated component. During the heating and stretching process of the fibers, the polymer preforms partially liquefy and form long fibers. The diodes are distributed axially along the fiber center and connected through copper wires.
The semiconductor devices used in this process are composed of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and photodiodes. During the stretching process, the dimensions of the semiconductor and copper wires remain unchanged, while the fibers contract around both sides. After weaving into the entire fabric, the resulting optical fiber needs to undergo 10 washes to verify its practicality as a clothing material.
The first author of the paper, Rein, said, 'This new process opens up new ideas for fiber manufacturing. We do not aggregate all materials in a liquid form, but rather aggregate metal wires with granular components
One advantage of polymeric fiber materials themselves is their natural waterproof properties. To prove this, the team placed some photoelectric detection fibers into the fish tank. Let a light outside the fish tank transmit music to the underwater optical fiber in the form of an optical signal. The optical fibers in the fish tank convert light pulses into electrical pulse signals, and finally into music.
Although the principle of fiber manufacturing sounds very simple, achieving large-scale production with quality and quantity assurance is a long and difficult process. The method developed by AFFOA staff to increase fiber production capacity has prepared for the industrial production of this fiber. At the same time, Marty Ellis of Inman Mills has developed a new technology that enables functional fibers to be woven into textile fabrics through traditional large-scale textile mechanisms.
Fink said, 'This paper provides a shortcut for combining semiconductor devices with fibers. We expect this fiber technology to develop rapidly in the coming years. Now, we are able to expand some basic functions of fabrics, including communication, lighting, physiological monitoring, etc. In the coming years, fabrics will be able to provide more intelligent services
Fink stated that the initial commercial application of this technology will be products related to communication and security, and the first batch of products will enter the market next year. This will be the first textile communication system. He said, 'We are promoting this technology to domestic manufacturers at an unprecedented speed and scale. The process from laboratory research to commercialization is very rapid. The key to achieving rapid commercial transformation of scientific research results is to establish a tripartite cooperation of' academia industry government 'like AFFOA
In addition to commercial applications, Fink said that the US Department of Defense, as a major supporter of AFFOA, is also exploring the application of flexible hardware fabrics in work uniforms.
Researchers also mentioned that in addition to the communication field, these fibers also have important application value in the biomedical field. For example, manufacturing wristbands that can measure pulse or blood oxygen levels, or bandages that continuously monitor the process of wound healing.