The field of silicon photonics, which uses light rather than electricity to transmit and process data on semiconductor chips, has enabled optical systems to evolve from bulky setups to compact, advanced systems. Typically, however, these silicon-photonics chips are rigid and opaque.

MIT scientists have now figured out a scalable way to make silicon-photonics chips flexible and transparent, opening a route to advanced microchips that could be used in applications such as discrete health monitors that conform to the body or transparent augmented-reality displays that fit the curve of a pilot’s helmet.

While scientists have recently performed lab demonstrations of chips that were flexible or transparent, they could only fabricate a few devices at a time.