On January 22, the prestigious academic journal "Nature" published an original technological breakthrough from a Chinese research team. Researchers broke the traditional silicon-based chip paradigm, building a high-density integrated circuit in a fiber thinner than a hair strand, and pioneered the development of a "fiber chip" internationally.
This original research result comes from the National Key Laboratory of Polymer Molecular Engineering, the Institute of Fiber Electronic Materials and Devices, the Department of Polymer Science, and the Advanced Materials Laboratory at Fudan University, led by Peng Huisheng and Chen Peining. The "fiber chip" has information processing capabilities comparable to some classic commercial chips, and it has unique advantages such as high flexibility, adaptability to complex deformations like stretching and twisting, and being weavable. It is expected to provide key support for future industries such as brain-computer interfaces, electronic textiles, and virtual reality.
Previously, the research team had already proposed the new concept of "fiber devices" internationally and had created more than 30 types of fiber devices. Related achievements have been published in "Nature" seven times, with some technologies transferred to leading domestic enterprises. They have also established production lines for light-emitting fibers and fiber lithium-ion batteries, achieving initial applications in fields such as automotive and clothing.
However, to achieve greater large-scale application of fiber devices, it is necessary to overcome the core technical barriers of "chips," including spatial constraints, lithography compatibility, and stability challenges.
Previous chip development relied on silicon-based materials. How to develop chips on polymer materials? To address this, researchers took a different approach, drawing inspiration from the idea of rolling sushi, not limited to the surface of the fiber, they built a spiral multi-layer circuit, greatly improving space utilization. According to the laboratory's 1-micron lithography precision, a 1-millimeter-long fiber can currently integrate 10,000 transistors, comparable to some commercial medical implant chips; the number of transistors integrated in a 1-meter-long fiber can reach the level of a classic computer central processing unit. Building a spiral multi-layer circuit inside the fiber, theoretically, a 1-millimeter-long fiber can integrate about 10,000 transistors. After years of research, the team finally achieved an integration density of 100,000 transistors per centimeter.
More importantly, its fabrication process is effectively compatible with existing mature lithography processes, laying the foundation for mass production. The team used plasma etching technology to reduce the surface roughness to below 1 nanometer, meeting commercial lithography requirements and breaking the traditional perception that "chips can only be etched on silicon wafers."
Professor Chen Peining from the Institute of Fiber Electronic Materials and Devices and the Department of Polymer Science at Fudan University said, "We hope this new research approach can provide a new reference for the chip industry and possibly lead to another development track." He also mentioned that wearable technology is an important direction and field, and fiber is a very ideal carrier.
The "fiber chip" is not intended to replace traditional silicon-based chips but to open up a new application path, with its advantage being excellent flexibility and integration. This new type of chip material is extremely flexible, capable of bending, stretching, twisting, even withstanding the pressure of a truck weighing tens of tons. After washing according to industrial standards dozens of times, its performance remains stable, and it can function normally at 100°C high temperature.
Based on the design concept that "a single fiber is a micro-electronic system," power supply, sensing, display, and signal processing functions can be integrated on a single fiber. This means no external processor is needed, and soft and breathable electronic textiles can be woven using fiber chips. This provides great room for commercialization—such as future clothes may become "smart displays," enabling dynamic pixel display; in scenarios such as remote medical robot surgery, fiber chips can be made into smart tactile gloves, accurately simulating the mechanical touch of different objects, enhancing human-machine interaction experiences.
Wang Zhen, a doctoral student at the Advanced Materials Laboratory of Fudan University, said, "Using this fully flexible fiber intelligent interactive glove, doctors can have more sensitive tactile senses during remote surgery operations, without being disturbed by rigid modules. In the future, after brain-computer interface implantation, there will be no need for any external equipment, and data collection, computation, and analysis can be done independently, eventually forming a closed loop with the brain."
This breakthrough in the field of chip materials has also surprised medical device developers. Zhu Rui, founder and CEO of Weiguang Medical, told First Financial News, "The fiber chip has the potential to change the rules of implanted medical devices in the future, integrating circuits and signal transmission onto a single fiber material, which will drastically reduce the volume. This is tailor-made for the implantation of devices within the body."
(This article is from First Financial News)
Original: toutiao.com/article/7598002509277430318/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.