Soft Magnetic Fibers and Textiles for Assisting Minimally Invasive Surgery and Soft Orthoses

Magnetically responsive soft materials are envisioned as the next-generation building block in a myriad of applications including in minimally invasive surgical procedures, soft orthoses, and smart textiles due to their untethered, compliant, safe, and lightweight nature [1]. However, constructing highly integrated magnetic fibers with extreme aspect ratios, that can be used as steerable catheters, endoscopes, or in medical textiles, remains a significant materials and processing challenge. Here, we present multi-material thermal drawing as a materials and processing platform to manufacture 10s of meters long, soft, ultra-stretchable, yet highly resilient magnetic fibers with a diameter as low as 300 μm. The preform-to-fiber thermal drawing of magnetically responsive soft composite materials enables the fabrica- 5 tionofmagneticfiberswithhighaspectratiosof10 and intricate internal multi-material architectures, resulting in diverse functionalities [2]. We fabricate soft magnetic fibers that can bend, twist, and be steered in several different directions, deliver drugs, and also be weaved into forming functional magnetic textiles [2]. Integrating in a single thin and soft fiber actuation with sensing, along with the ability to deliver optical and electrical signals or possess micro- fluidics attributes, represents a substantial breakthrough in applications like smart catheters and soft medical textiles [3]. We also introduce nanocomposite conductive layers together with magnetic fibers aiming to build highly integrated smart catheters, and medical textile systems that can extract shape-morphing information for the rehabilitation to damaged joints.