Implantable Electronic Shrink Wrap Promises to be a Boon to Human Hearts

Researchers have revealed that laminating devices, which could enhance human health and performance by marrying electronics with the human body, onto tissues could help achieve natural motions, without mechanical constraint. John A. Rogers, Ph.D., of the Departments of Materials Science, Engineering, and Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and editorial advisory board member for ACS Nano, talked about materials for a new generation of electronic devices that promise to revolutionize health care in the world of tomorrow, at the American Chemical Society meeting.

Rogers said that materials, mechanics designs and manufacturing systems are now available for electronic systems that achieve effective elastic moduli and bending stiffness's matched to the surfaces of major organs of the body, including the skin, the heart and the brain.

The researcher said that laminating such devices onto these tissues leads to conformal contact, and adequate adhesion based on van der Waals interactions alone, in a manner that can accommodate natural motions, without mechanical constraint.

The key aspects of this type of technology were highlighted, with an emphasis on the materials, the soft lithographic manufacturing methods and several examples of clinically relevant modes of use.

Source-ANI