Stretchable conductive yarn with extreme electrical stability pushes fabrication of versatile textile stretchable electronics

Textile stretchable electronics can conform to the curved human skin, thus make favorable elements for various wearable applications. However, mechanical stretchability of the electronic textiles has been overemphasized, instead of the essential electrical characteristics, such as conductivity and electrical stability. In this work, we report a stretchable textile interconnects, i.e., the multi-layer helical yarn (MLHY). Thanks to the helical structural configuration and incorporation of metal fibers, these conductive yarns not only show supreme stretching capability, but also remain ultrahigh conductivity with nearly 100% electrical stability before failure. It's further demonstrated that, MLHYs can be easily integrated in textile structures, through sewing, weaving, or knitting technologies. Hence, we suggest that MLHYs are reliable and promising stretchable interconnects, which can promote the fabrication of versatile textile stretchable electronics.