An multinational research team headed by the University of Cambridge in the UK has developed the next generation of smart textiles that include LEDs, sensors, energy harvesting, and storage. The fabrics can be made in any shape or size for a low cost utilising the same machinery that are used to make regular garments.
The team discovered that it is more environmentally friendly and economical to weave electronic, optoelectronic, sensing, and energy fibre components on industrial looms used to create conventional textiles rather than using specialised microelectronic fabrication facilities, which generate significant amounts of waste.
The study’s results, which were reported in the journal Science Advances, have demonstrated the promise of smart textiles as a practical replacement for cumbersome electronics in a variety of sectors, including the automobile and fashion industries.
The researchers have shown that smart fabrics of any size or shape may be produced using automated procedures. These intelligent textiles are made of numerous fibre devices, including energy storage units, light-emitting diodes, and transistors, which are woven into regular fibres (synthetic or natural), whether they are.
The research team successfully produced test patches of smart fabrics that were roughly 50×50 centimetres in size through partnership with textile manufacturers. These textiles may be produced on a greater scale and in vast quantities. The researchers claim that rather than using specialised electronics manufacturing facilities, it may be possible to produce huge, flexible displays and monitors on industrial looms, which would result in a significant decrease in production costs. The procedure needs to be enhanced further.
Dr Sanghyo Lee from Cambridge’s department of engineering, the paper’s first author, said: “We could make these textiles in specialised microelectronics facilities, but these require billions of pounds of investment. These companies have well-established manufacturing lines with high throughput fibre extruders and large weaving machines that can weave a metre square of textiles automatically. When we introduce the smart fibres to the process, the result is basically an electronic system that is manufactured exactly the same way other textiles are manufactured.”
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
