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Pervasive web systems

Fibers are universally ubiquitous in manmade objects, such as clothes and furniture. They are often a base component of reinforced composites. Moreover, optical fibers wrap the Earth in a dense web of telecommunication cables, overall one billion miles long. We are transforming the fiber into a functional device, to make it not only pervasive, but also intelligent. Ability to incorporate functional materials and morphologies into a thermally drawn preform results in integrated nano-devices packed with micrometric pitch into a multiple-kilometers long fiber. Such fibers can listen, watch, palp, smell and taste their surroundings, communicating those sensations to a remote computer. Results of the research in the area of pervasive web systems is applicable to multiple technological areas, such as remote and distributed pollutants detection, psychophysiological monitoring and management, energy harvesting, ultrasonic imaging etc.

In-fiber fluid dynamics

Monolithic multimaterial fiber-device is a result of a sequence of liquid phase material processing steps, such as a thermal draw of a preform and an axial pattering of fiber cores by means of a controlled capillary instability. While control over the fluid dynamics is essential for a device fabrication, the vice-versa is true as well: the multimaterial fiber is a fascinating playground for generating a new knowledge in fluid dynamics. The most familiar of fluid dynamic phenomena is, likely, the jetting in a water tap stream: an intact stream of water emerging from the faucet eventually breaks up into a necklace of spheres, due to the tendency for the surface-area minimization. When promoted in a multimaterial fiber by its liquefaction at elevated temperatures, the dynamic behavior of fluids becomes much more complex than this basic phenomenon. Combination of materials of various viscosities and interfacial energies in a predefined complex architecture, where multiple threads, while axially uniform, greatly vary in their cross sectional dimensions and geometries, results in a multitude of coupled capillary instability processes. Evolution of these processes can be halted at any desired moment by cooling the fiber, and the captured geometrical configuration can be thoroughly investigated. Thus, multimaterial fiber is a powerful physical simulator for investigation of time-evolving Navier–Stokes equations.

Recursive fiber-device 3D printing

Functional complexity of the fiber device largely correlates the architectural flexibility of the fiber preform. Monolithic and precise Direct Digital Manufacturing of fiber preforms is a key factor for enabling Moor’s law dynamics in the realm of functional fibers and fabrics. Recent advances in additive manufacturing in silica glass enable for the first time taking a CAD-CAM approach to the fiber preform design and manufacturing. Taking a recursive manufacturing approach, the fiber resulting from a thermal draw of 3D printed preform embedding devices with active functionalities, can be used as a feedstock for 3D printing fiber-based scaffolds with active sensing and microfluidic modalities for biomedical and tissue engineering applications.

Fiber-enabled tissue engineering

Fibers made of biocompatible materials that have a thin and flexible form factor fit the metabolic and the mechanical properties of the living tissue. Thus, they can create intimate contact with living media without promoting a development of a scar tissue. Embedding stress and temperature sensors, such fiber-based scaffolds can monitor the “happiness” of the surrounding tissue. Moreover, spheres of noble metals, such as gold or platinum, created by capillary instability and contacted by electrodes running along the fiber inside the cladding, can serve as electrical attachment and stimulation ports, while semiconducting devices can sense the electrical and the optical response of the cells to such stimulation. Microfluidic channels in the fiber find their use in nutrition, drugs and growth agents’ delivery, and in enhancing the oxygen perfusion into the tissue. Fiber-tissue hybrids can find their use in multiple applications in biomedicine, bioelectronics, bio-printing, and tissue engineering.

FAMES Lab

Research

Pervasive web systems

In-fiber fluid dynamics

Recursive fiber-device 3D printing

Fiber-enabled tissue engineering

FAMES Lab

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Research

Pervasive web systems

In-fiber fluid dynamics

Recursive fiber-device 3D printing

Fiber-enabled tissue engineering

FAMES Lab

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Quick Links