LED Tattoos? Implanted Silicon Electronics
Researchers have been able to build thin, flexible silicon electronics on silk substrates that almost completely dissolve inside the body. Does this mean we might be looking at LED tattoos in the future?
A recent article in Technology Review, published by MIT, brings to mind this Philips Design Probe from a couple of years ago, where the human body is explored as a platform for electronics and interactive skin technology.
By building thin, flexible silicon electronics on silk substrates, researchers have made electronics that almost completely dissolve inside the body. So far the research group has demonstrated arrays of transistors made on thin films of silk. While electronics must usually be encased to protect them from the body, these electronics don't need protection, and the silk means the electronics conform to biological tissue. The silk melts away over time and the thin silicon circuits left behind don't cause irritation because they are just nanometers thick.
Cool.
