A team of Chinese researchers has introduced a new type of chip called FLEXI, which combines durable silicon with built-in artificial intelligence. These chips are designed for medical health monitoring and stand out for their extremely low cost—less than one dollar per unit.

A Breakthrough in Wearable Electronics

For a long time, the development of smart wearable devices was limited by bulky and energy-hungry chips. However, scientists from Tsinghua University and Peking University have overcome this barrier by creating a family of flexible AI chips called FLEXI, which are thinner than a human hair.

Architectural Innovations

The study highlights a significant architectural shift: computations now take place directly within the chip’s memory. Unlike current wearable devices that must transmit data to external processors or the cloud, FLEXI processes information right on its own circuit. This approach dramatically reduces the energy required for data transfer between memory and processor—the chip consumes less than 1% of the energy compared to standard silicon.

Unique Physical Properties

FLEXI chips are manufactured using polycrystalline silicon deposited at low temperatures (LTPS) on a flexible plastic substrate. Thanks to this, they can be stretched, twisted, and even crumpled without losing functionality. In bending tests, the chip withstood over 40,000 flex cycles and could be folded to a radius of just one millimeter while maintaining performance.

Medical Applications

Tests involving volunteers demonstrated FLEXI’s high medical potential. The chip can detect arrhythmias with 99.2% accuracy and monitor physical activities such as walking and cycling with 97.4% accuracy.

Prospects for Mass Adoption

FLEXI is designed for large-scale use. With a production cost of less than one dollar, the technology could become the foundation for creating smart fabrics and clothing with integrated artificial intelligence—something that was previously economically unfeasible. While the team plans to integrate more advanced sensors in the future, FLEXI already offers a highly accurate and energy-efficient platform for the next generation of flexible electronics.