MIT’s smart fabric with fibers-based piezoelectric sensors are headed to the International Space Station for measuring the impacts of space dusts in harsh environments.

The technology behind this multi-material fiber-based sensor technology was invented at MIT (Bayindir, Fink, et al., Nature, 2004).

Multi-material fiber-based integrated devices have attracted great interest since its first demonstration at MIT (Mehmet Bayindir, Yoel Fink, et al., Nature, 2004; Nature Materials, 2005; US patents: US7292758B2, US8098966B2, US8863556B2; WO patents: WO2006014360A2, WO2007038718A1). Transforming a macroscopic rod comprised of metallic, semiconducting, piezoelectric, and dielectric elements into hundreds of meters-long microscale fiber-based devices with sophisticated geometries and functionalities leads to novel applications as smart textile, artificial skin, optogenetic probes,  large-area sensory systems, and energy storage devices.