The Advance: Flexible Medical Electronic Implants

The Advance: Flexible Medical Electronic Implants

By Shinji Tutoru

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, ILLINOIS, USA; UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS, USA; KOREA ADVANCED INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, DAEJEON, SOUTH KOREA; DALIAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, LIAONING, CHINA. The Advance utilizes the combination of liquid metal and porous polymer. It will allow electronics stretch and bend to more than 200% of their original size. This is like 4 times greater to what is achievable with the current technology that we have.

One of the challenges by most electronic devices is that the circuits made from solid metals can only survive a small amount of stretch. When stretched, their electrical conductivity drops by 100 times. This alone, defeats the purpose of having stretchable electronics.

The research was made to develop electronic devices that can be stretched like a rubber band. This would allow the easy integration of medical devices into the human body. A collaboration by Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and China’s Dalian University of Technology was made in order to achieve what used to be an impossible feat.

The researchers found a solution by creating a highly porous 3D structure using PDMS (poly dimethylsiloxane) that can stretch to 3 times its original size. A liquid metal was then placed inside the pores. Thus, allowing electricity to consistently flow when the material is stretched excessively. This resulted to a material that is extremely conductive and highly stretchable. Eventually, this could lead to the improvement and development of monitoring devices that are flexible and can be easily incorporated into the body to track, monitor and transmit vital signs of patients.

Invention The Advance
Organization Northwestern University, Illinois, USA; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA; Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea; Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning, China
Researcher Yonggang Huang, Prof. Joseph Cummings, Shuodao Wang & colleagues
Field(s) Electronics, Medical Devices, Stretchable Medical Electronic Implants, 3D Nanonetworks, Stretchable Conductors & Dielectrics
Further Information The Engineer

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