Where is Captain Cyborg when you need him?
Bio-integrated circuitry melds man and machine
If you want to marry rigid silicon with soft, stretchy human tissue, it's best to create silicon devices that can conform, stretch, and live in harmony with living flesh. So says University of Illinois professor John Rogers, who provided an update on his work with bio-integrated and transient electronics to the attendees of …
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Tuesday 11th December 2012 22:45 GMT John Smith 19
Now this *is* clever
Turning something as stiff as a wafer of single crystal Silicon into something you can fold like paper (Silicon origami anyone?).
Then finding a way to handle stretching as well.
2 problems are obvious.
Do you build up these layers or strip them from wafers? At 15 atoms a time a single wafer could last a long time.
Like most disposable electronics proposals it still leaves a lot of device types you'd want to have (batteries, LEDs, displays, piezoelectric elements) left to be integrated.
On the up side it could work with SiGe and that handles RF devices, and being at heart single crystal Si leverages all the process tricks that already exist for high quality, high frequency devices.
Stick on Alcohol warning alarm for people who don't realise they are over the limit?
Thumbs up for a genuine viable new piece of technology.
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Wednesday 12th December 2012 08:58 GMT rurwin
Re: Now this *is* clever
Cars now have RFID detection which prevents the car starting if you haven't paid the manufacturer £100.
So instead of detecting the keys, it could detect the implant, which would refuse to play ball if you've had a drink. That'd be an invasion of privacy too far in the main, but it might be a way for drink-drivers to retain their license if it were vital for their livelihood.
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