Semiconductors and technology to create intelligent garments
A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is leading a project that would create clothes that, among other things, could measure the heart rate of users.
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Scientists in the USA They have developed a fabric that incorporates diodes and sensors with the aim of creating “smart” garments that would be able, for example, to measure the user’s heart rate, according to a study published in the journal “Nature”.
The experts at the head of this research, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), managed to “sew” these semiconductors to fine polymer fibers, a technique that, until now, had not yielded the expected results.
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The new fabric, they highlight, will allow manufacturers to develop clothing capable of performing optical communication tasks and monitoring the health status of its carrier, among other functions.
Diodes, which are used in electronic devices, are components that facilitate the circulation of the current in one direction and block it in the opposite direction.
Also, experts remember, these semiconductors can emit light or detect it, which makes them key elements for the development of communication technologies and sensors.
The researchers began the aforementioned process of “sewing” with a large polymer mass in which they embedded the semiconductors, while they placed next to this structure hollow channels to transport copper or tungsten cables.
“As the structure heats up and becomes a fiber, the lead wires approach the diodes until they establish electrical contact, resulting in hundreds of diodes – which emit light or detect it – connected in parallel within a single fiber “, explain the authors in the text.
This process, they say, is “intrinsically scalable” and can generate hundreds of meters of fibers, which, in turn, can be easily joined to create the new fabric.
Another of the main characteristics of diode fibers is their durability, as demonstrated by the experts after submitting the fabric to up to ten standard cycles in domestic washing machines, without any loss of their properties.
They also found that a bidirectional optical communication link can be established between two fabrics containing detector and light emitting fibers, and that these intelligent fabrics are capable of measuring the user’s heart rate.
