Circuit2Yarn: From Planar Circuits to Electronic Yarns for Textile-Based Interactions

Zhechen Zhao1, Jingyi Liu1, Tianhong Catherine Yu2, Jiaqing Liu1, Zeyu Yan3, Huaishu Peng3, Yiyue Luo4, Zhihan Zhang4, Tingyu Cheng1
1Univeristy of Notre Dame, 2Cornell Univeristy, 3Univeristy of Maryland, 4Univeristy of Washington
ACM CHI 2026 Paper YouTube IoM Lab

Circuit2Yarn embeds sensing, display, and interaction capabilities into yarns as thin as 0.8mm, enabling distributed and expressive smart textiles.

Abstract

Smart yarns hold the potential to transform everyday textiles into functional platforms, yet current methods remain constrained. These include conductive yarns, made from silver or stainless steel, which retain the feel of conventional yarns but offer limited functions, and PCB-based solutions, which add capability at the cost of bulk and rigidity. We present Circuit2Yarn, a fabrication framework that transforms planar printed circuits into flexible yarns by rolling copper-traced TPU films with soldered surface-mount components, preserving the capabilities of rigid electronics while producing yarn-like forms suitable for textile integration. We demonstrate yarns as small as 0.8 mm that integrate LEDs and sensors, including temperature, humidity, light, IMU, and capacitive sensing modules, enabling applications ranging from smart garments and interactive musical instruments to responsive tea bags. Characterization confirms durability under bending/stretching. By rolling planar circuits into yarns, Circuit2Yarn paves the way toward comfortable, multifunctional, and interactive textiles in everyday life.

Overview

A diagram illustrating the five-stage fabrication pipeline: Circuit Design, Cutting & Transferring, Soldering & Assembly, Rolling & Encapsulation, and Textile Integration. The lower half shows an exploded view of a light sensor yarn being assembled with layers of TPU substrate, copper traces, and PDMS encapsulation.

Circuit2Yarn is a prototyping platform for yarn-like textile electronics, with a fabrication pipeline that starts with circuit design in common EDA tools, followed by cutting, assembly, rolling, and encapsulation to produce an electronic yarn that can be integrated into textiles. Each step is highly accessible by using desktop equipment such as a vinyl cutter, a soldering hot plate, and an oven.

Primitive Electronic Yarn Architecture

An overview of the different functional modules achieved. Macro photos with millimeter labels show the specific footprints of a 0402 LED, a 0402 resistor, a serpentine copper trace, a circular capacitive pad (8.2 mm), a 6-axis IMU (2.5 mm x 3.0 mm), a humidity/temperature sensor (1.5 mm x 1.5 mm), and a digital light sensor (2 mm x 2 mm).

To demonstrate the versatility of our fabrication framework, we developed a set of primitive yarn architectures that showcase both output and input capabilities. These primitives span from lightweight, componentless sensing modalities—such as capacitive touch—to more sophisticated, component-based integrations, including LEDs, light sensors, humidity and temperature sensors, and IMUs.

Video Figure

Fabrication Process

BibTeX

@inproceedings{Zhao_Circuit2Yarn_2026,
        address = {Barcelona, Spain},
	      series = {{CHI}'26},
	      title = {Circuit2Yarn: From Planar Circuits to Electronic Yarns for Textile-Based Interactions},
	      doi = {10.1145/3772318.3791650},
	      booktitle = {Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
	      publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
	      author = {Zhao, Zhechen and Liu, Jingyi and Yu, Tianhong Catherine and Liu, Jiaqing and Yan, Zeyu and Peng, Huaishu and Luo, Yiyue and Zhang, Zhihan and Cheng, Tingyu},
	      month = apr,
	      year = {2026},
	      pages = {1--22}
}