Soluble electronics suitable for implantation have been created. Free Technical Library News

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Soluble electronics suitable for implantation created

06.10.2012

American bioengineers have learned how to make "soluble" electronic implants that can be destroyed right inside the body without resorting to surgery, and published instructions for assembling such devices in an article in the journal Science. Engineers from Tufts University and the University of Illinois have developed a way to produce dissolvable electronics - devices that, after some time after implantation, break down and are excreted from the body on their own.

Natural silk became the basis of soluble electronic devices. Previously, the authors of the study learned how to create thin plates from it, which could be used as a substrate for wires and microchips. By varying the thickness and density of the silk, the engineers could control the rate of dissolution of the device in the body. To create wires, engineers proposed using metallic magnesium. Due to its high reactivity, it is practically not used in electronics. However, for the creation of soluble devices, reactivity proved to be an advantage. Because of it, thin metal films under the action of water oxidize over time and turn into ions.

The authors used ordinary silicon as semiconductors. Engineers have shown that its rather thin plates dissolve relatively quickly in the aquatic environment. For example, at a thickness of 100 nm, a wafer of silicon used by engineers dissolved at a rate of 4,5 nm per day.

Rogers and his colleagues have been trying for years to find the perfect recipe for dissolving electronics by experimenting with various organic and inorganic compounds. As scientists note, all components of such electronics - insulating substrates, conductors and semiconductors - should be freely excreted from the body without harming it. In addition, the finished device must be flexible and compact enough to be successfully implanted under the skin or in other parts of the human body.

Pure magnesium and its oxide are used as a "building material" for conducting electrodes and as a dielectric substrate for transistors. The thinnest strips of silicon are necessary for the operation of transistors and other semiconductor devices, including temperature sensors, microscopic photosensors and cameras. Molecules of the biopolymer, which forms the basis of silk, are used as a flexible and soluble shell of the device.

Bioengineers believe that the use of such devices is not limited to medicine and wearable electronics. In particular, cell phones and other portable electronic devices based on soluble components can be disposed of by burying in the ground or dissolving in water.

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