Overview
- Researchers at Fudan University led by Peng Huisheng embedded complete electronic circuits inside flexible fibers that can be woven into textiles.
- Each fiber reaches about 100,000 transistors per centimetre, with a 1 millimetre segment integrating tens of thousands and a one-metre length reaching millions.
- The strands handle digital and analogue processing and demonstrated neural-style image recognition, with resistors, capacitors, diodes, and transistors built in.
- The fibers endured more than 10,000 bending and abrasion cycles, stretched up to 30%, twisted 180 degrees per centimetre, survived 100+ wash cycles, withstood 100°C, and bore a 15.6-tonne truck.
- The team integrated power, sensing, computing, and display in a single fiber and reported laboratory-scale scalable manufacturing, pointing to uses in smart clothing, medical devices, and human‑machine interfaces.