Laser-programmed stiffness and interfaces for textile hybrid electronics

Permeable textiles show great potential for daily wearable electronics. As crucial electronic components, rigid chips suffer from modulus mismatch with elastic textile substrates, hindering the development of stretchable hybrid electronics. Herein, we report laser-programmed textile hybrid electronics (LPTHE) featuring seamless integration of wires and chips onto laser-programmed textiles (LPTs). Through selective and controllable laser-polymer interaction, LPTs are tailored with gradient stiffness and interfacial affinities. The laser-pretreated regions exhibit a modulus increase ranging from 2.7-fold to 14.9-fold, while maintaining permeability and biological safety. Such LPT provides stretch stability to LPTHE, creating strain isolation between rigid chips and elastic textiles, while also protecting wires on textiles from disconnection and cross-layer short circuits. We demonstrate an LPTHE screen with 5 × 5 light-emitting diodes displaying variable patterns under deformation. Additionally, an untethered stretchable LPTHE patch continuously monitors four health parameters during exercise. The proposed strategy bridges the gap between hybrid electronics and elastic daily textiles.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2026-01-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67149-x
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
21.28

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article

Laser-programmed stiffness and interfaces for textile hybrid electronics

Kaichen Xu, Zimo Cai, Kewang Nan, Tao Liu et al.
1 citations
Nature Communications
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
21.28
article

Laser-programmed stiffness and interfaces for textile hybrid electronics

Kaichen Xu, Zimo Cai, Kewang Nan, Tao Liu, Geng Yang, Haibo Xie, Long He, Kangjie Ye, Jian Tang, Yi Zhu, Huayu Luo, Huayong Yang, Ying Zhang, Michael D. Dickey
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Permeable textiles show great potential for daily wearable electronics. As crucial electronic components, rigid chips suffer from modulus mismatch with elastic textile substrates, hindering the development of stretchable hybrid electronics. Herein, we report laser-programmed textile hybrid electronics (LPTHE) featuring seamless integration of wires and chips onto laser-programmed textiles (LPTs). Through selective and controllable laser-polymer interaction, LPTs are tailored with gradient stiffness and interfacial affinities. The laser-pretreated regions exhibit a modulus increase ranging from 2.7-fold to 14.9-fold, while maintaining permeability and biological safety. Such LPT provides stretch stability to LPTHE, creating strain isolation between rigid chips and elastic textiles, while also protecting wires on textiles from disconnection and cross-layer short circuits. We demonstrate an LPTHE screen with 5 × 5 light-emitting diodes displaying variable patterns under deformation. Additionally, an untethered stretchable LPTHE patch continuously monitors four health parameters during exercise. The proposed strategy bridges the gap between hybrid electronics and elastic daily textiles.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 17(1)
Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (CN), North Carolina State University (US), Zhejiang University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Zhejiang University, Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials
21.28
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Laser-programmed stiffness and interfaces for textile hybrid electronics — Kaichen Xu, Zimo Cai, et al. · Nature Communications (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS