E. Doran, L. Cantley
MIT Lincoln Laboratory,
United States
Keywords: Fiber, fabric, textiles, electronics, advanced materials
Summary:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory researches and develops advanced technologies to meet critical national security needs. What sets us apart from many national R&D laboratories is an emphasis on building operational prototypes of the systems we design. Advanced fiber and textile technologies are developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory Defense Fabric Discovery Center (DFDC), a state-of-the-art prototyping facility. The center is equipped to design and produce fabrics with embedded microelectronics, enabling these fabrics to change color, store energy, emit and detect light, monitor health, or facilitate communication. The DFDC has CAD software for modeling the fiber preform that contains the microelectronics, draw towers to pull and spool fiber, full-garment knitting machines to weave the fiber into fabric, and system integration technology to produce a finished product. The ability to complete all the prototyping steps under one roof speeds up the process of getting finished products to the U.S. military for operational use. The DFDC was formed in a partnership between the Laboratory, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the U.S. Army Natick Soldier System Center (NSSC), and Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA). Recent textiles technologies that have been developed at the DFDC include: - Sensor arrays packaged as 1D System-in-Fiber (SiF) to enable persistent, inexpensive undersea climate monitoring - Microfluidic fiber devices to be used for refrigeration, cryogenics and thermal transport - Knitted tissue scaffolds that host living cells to enable more efficient healing from severe blast wounds DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited. This material is based upon work supported by the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering under Air Force Contract No. FA8702-15-D-0001 or FA8702-25-D-B002. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering. © 2026 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Delivered to the U.S. Government with Unlimited Rights, as defined in DFARS Part 252.227-7013 or 7014 (Feb 2014). Notwithstanding any copyright notice, U.S. Government rights in this work are defined by DFARS 252.227-7013 or DFARS 252.227-7014 as detailed above. Use of this work other than as specifically authorized by the U.S. Government may violate any copyrights that exist in this work.