LEDs for injection
A technology for manufacturing microscopic flexible electronics has been developed,
which can be painlessly implanted into the brain
DailyTechInfo based on Discovery News: Injectable Electronics Light Up A BrainRecently, words about the creation of all kinds of miniature electronic devices that can be implanted in the tissues of living organisms have been heard more and more often.
But if there are almost no problems on the part of the electronics itself, then the delicate tissues surrounding solid electronic devices can become irritated and inflamed, which can lead to unpleasant and painful sensations. In order to solve this problem, John A. Rogers, a professor of materials science at the University of Illinois, and Michael Bruchas, an anesthesiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, have created an electronic device so tiny that it can be inserted into extremely delicate tissues, such as nerve tissue brain, without causing any harm to these tissues.
John A. Rogers said in an interview with Discovery News that their task was complicated by the fact that the nerve tissues of the brain are not only very delicate and fragile, brain tissues tend to constantly move due to the fact that the brain is constantly floating in fluid inside the skull. This constant movement creates a lot of problems when someone tries to put rigid electronic devices or fiber-optic light guides inside the nerve tissues.
To create a tiny electronic device, scientists first created the thinnest "printed circuit board", the basis of the future device. This board is made of plastic polymer material reinforced with natural silk fibers. Natural silk is a neutral material for most living organisms, it has high adhesive properties, which is used to strengthen the contact of tissues with an electronic device. The resulting electronic device, which contains tiny LED light sources, has a thickness of only 25 microns, which gives it sufficient flexibility. For comparison, the thickness of a human hair is about 100 microns, and the thickness of the thinnest fiber optic fiber is 125 microns.
The created device was successfully implanted into the brain of a rodent animal, which was genetically engineered so that brain cells could perceive light signals from LED flashes. With the help of light, Rogers and his colleagues could stimulate certain brain cells, which manifested itself in the form of an animal reaction, which served as confirmation of the device's operability.
One of the advantages of this approach is that for the operation of such devices implanted in the brain, it is no longer necessary to connect this device to an external microprocessor using a harness sticking out of the skull, which restricts, restrains movements and changes the behavior of laboratory animals. And the use of LEDs instead of electrodes avoids injuries to nerve tissues that occur when electrodes are inserted and removed from the brain. This new type of microscopic electronics will allow scientists studying the brain to conduct cleaner experiments and obtain more reliable results.
Currently, the implanted electronic device still has a wire connecting it to an external power source, in this case, with a small battery attached to the animal's head. But in the future, it will not be difficult to organize the supply of energy to implanted devices using modern wireless technologies. And such microscopic devices can be implanted not only in the brain, but also in any other organs, such as the heart, kidneys and lungs.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru30.04.2013