News Article
Flexible semiconductors 'could be used to monitor brain and heart'
A University of Illinois specialist in flexible electronics has developed a way in which flat silicon wafers could be replaced so semiconductors can be used to monitor the heart and brain.
A world leader in flexible electronics and his team have been awarded a $500,000 grant (£306,000) to help him continue in his efforts to replace flat, brittle, silicon wafers with a new design.
The new design created by John Rogers, from the University of Illinois, allows him to use conventionally rigid semiconductors such as silicon as flexible substrates instead, allowing circuits to become stretchable.
Mr Rogers told the university's independent student newspaper the Daily Illini that new types of electronic devices could be manufactured, such as lightweight and large displays and flexible photovoltaics.
One application the semiconductor technology could be used for is monitoring the human heart and brain.
The devices would be made up on thin sheets of substrates with stimulating and sensing nodes which would integrate with organ tissue to create simple and accurate monitoring.
"By using materials that are composed of the same materials in body tissue as an initial substrate, electronics could possibly exist freely in the human body," the newspaper explained.
The University of Illinois has 16 colleges and instructional units including the college of engineering.
