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Chinese Researchers Develop Ultra Thin Flexible AI Chip for Smart Wearables

Chinese Researchers Develop Ultra-Thin Flexible AI Chip for Smart Wearables

FLEXI, created by researchers at Tsinghua University and Peking University, is a breakthrough family of flexible AI chips designed to elevate smart wearable performance.

Written by Gadgets 360 Staff | Updated: 31 January 2026 13:36 IST

Chinese Researchers Develop Ultra-Thin Flexible AI Chip for Smart Wearables

Photo Credit: Nature (2026)

Overview of FLEXI and its key attributes.

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Highlights

FLEXI chips are ultra-thin, flexible, and equipped with integrated AI
Achieved 99.2% accuracy in detecting irregular heartbeats and 97.4%
The chip consumed less than 1% of the energy of the standard chip

Smart wearables are often talked up. Despite impressive innovations, we are still not able to reach the full potential of it. Out of these things, what holds smart technology is the chip that operates it, which is stiff, power hungry and quite brittle. In order to come out of this problem, researchers from Tsinghua University and Peking University in China have created FLEXI, a family of flexible chips. These chips are quite thin yet flexible, able to fold thousands of times, and built with AI.

A flexible solution

According to the journal Nature, which was published in this regard, there are details of the design of the chip mentioned, together with the handling of AI complex tasks, which involve processing data from body sensors for identifying health issues such as irregular heartbeats in real time scenario.

This chip can process information directly on the chip rather than sending files to an external computer, which is completely different from the current wearables. AI is wired in the chip circuitry that means that memory components make calculations on the stored data there. This removes the thing of traveling of data from one part of the chip to another and saves time and power.

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Real-world results

Scientists tested FLEXI on the real world health situations and collected data from a group of volunteers. This identified the irregular heartbeats with 99.2% showing accurate results and also tracked daily movements, including cycling and walking, with 97.4% accurate data.

At the time of research, the chip consumed less than 1% of the energy of the standard chip, which is cheap. FLEXI costs less than a dollar on mass production. It delivers a high yield, robust solution and is cost-effective. Withstanding mechanical stress and ensuring long-term operational stability, it serves the purpose to the fullest.

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