On January 22, it was reported that, according to the official account of Fudan University, the main journal of Nature, the top international academic journal, published the latest research achievement of the Peng Huisheng/Chen Peining team of Fudan University, Fiber Integrated Circuits Based on Multilayer Spin Stack Architecture. The team successfully produced large-scale integrated circuits in soft polymer fibers, creating the world's first "fiber chip".

It is expected to provide strong technological support for emerging industries such as brain computer interfaces, electronic fabrics, and virtual reality.

It is reported that the photolithography process of traditional chips generally relies on a flat silicon wafer substrate, while fibers not only have a curved surface structure and a small surface area, but also have difficulty withstanding various polar solvents during the photolithography process, which are used to prepare elastic polymer substrates for fiber devices.

At the same time, it is necessary to ensure the stability of the circuit during deformation such as stretching and twisting.

Soft 'fiber chip' knotted on fingers photo

The Fudan team breaks away from the inertia thinking of only utilizing the surface of fibers and proposes a design concept of multi-layer spiral stacking architecture, which involves building multi-layer integrated circuits inside the fibers to form a spiral spiral spiral stacking structure, thereby maximizing the utilization of the internal space of the fibers.

Concept diagram of "fiber chip"

After nearly five years, the team has successively overcome multiple technical challenges such as polymer surface leveling, solvent corrosion resistance, and circuit stability under deformation, and finally successfully prepared a "fiber chip" with information processing function.

Three dimensional reconstructed fluorescent labeled photos of multi-layer spiral stacked architecture displayed on "fiber chip"

This' fiber chip 'not only maintains the inherent characteristics of fiber softness and braiding, but also achieves high-precision interconnection of electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, etc. The lithography accuracy has reached the highest level of laboratory level lithography machines. 

This means that based on "fiber chips", in the future, modules such as light emission and sensing can be directly integrated onto a single fiber, forming a fully closed-loop system without the need for external equipment, and even achieving self powering.

It is understood that the "fiber chip" can withstand bending with a radius of 1 millimeter, 20% tensile deformation, water washing, and even stable performance after being crushed by trucks.

Fiber chip maintains stable performance during truck crushing

By efficiently interconnecting transistors with electronic components such as capacitors and resistors, "fiber chips" can achieve functions such as digital and analog circuit operations. After integrating electromechanical and chemical transistors, they can also complete neural computing tasks.

Experimental calculations show that with a current laboratory level lithography processing accuracy of 1 micron, a "fiber chip" with a length of 1 millimeter can integrate tens of thousands of transistors, and its information processing capability can be comparable to some medical implantable chips.

If the length of the "fiber chip" is extended to 1 meter, the number of integrated transistors is expected to increase to the million level, reaching an integration level comparable to classical computer central processing units.

In the field of brain computer interfaces, "fiber chips" are expected to break through the bottleneck of traditional devices and provide new tools for neuroscience research and treatment of neurological diseases.

In terms of electronic fabrics, this chip can transform ordinary clothing into an "interactive screen", meaning that people may not need to take out their phones in the future, and navigation can be displayed on the cuffs; During exercise, clothes can display real-time physiological health data and even play videos.

In the field of virtual reality, doctors can wear smart tactile gloves based on "fiber chips" for remote surgery, which can clearly perceive organ hardness.

Application diagram and conceptual prototype photos in the field of virtual reality

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