Engineers at UNSW Sydney have discovered a way to create flexible electronic systems from materials as thin as skin. This development enables all 3D systems that can be extended to function as semiconductors and could help reduce the need for animal testing by making the so-called part-on-a-chip technology more efficient.
Along the way, the technology could also be used in health monitoring systems or implantable biomedical devices, such as systems to alert people with epilepsy. The research team, led by Dr Hoang-Phuong Phan of UNSW’s School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, published their findings in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
Their new technique involves using lithography – a process that uses light to print small patterns – to create wide bandgap semiconductors such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride in thin and flexible nanomembranes and polymer substrates. Organ-on-a-chip technology
These semiconductor membranes provide sensing, recording, and pacing functions even when stretched and twisted into any imaginable 3D shape.
They could be an important part of part-on-a-chip technology, a promising approach that involves creating tiny replicas of the human body on tiny chips. These pieces of paper mimic the function and structure of the body, allowing scientists to analyze their behavior and test the effects of drugs or diseases in an accurate and efficient way.
And because organ-on-a-chip technology allows researchers to mimic the complexity of human organs under laboratory conditions, it may eliminate the need to use animals in many studies. and research. “Many people want to continue medical research with genetically engineered human models rather than live animals for legal, ethical and ethical reasons,” said Dr. Phan says.
“You can create 3D cell parts that mimic the real part, but we also want to create 3D electrodes to help support this explosive process. “Our process creates an electronic system and skin that can be scaled into any 3D model on a part-on-a-chip basis.”
The project is the culmination of collaborations and partnerships between UNSW, Griffith University, UQ, QUT and international partners such as Kyung Hee University, University of Southern California and Northwestern University.
A wide bandgap device for easy monitoring
UNSW Scientia Lecturer Dr. Thanh Nho Do, the project’s chief researcher, added: “We use a wide bandgap material which, unlike traditional semiconductor materials, does not absorb visible light. This means that when scientists want to see parts-on-a-chip under the microscope, they can do it, otherwise it is impossible.
“The electronic system in the skin also allows to collect a lot of data while looking at how the artificial organ reacts to different things during the test.”
For this device, the researchers believe that it can be a commercial product in three to five years, although they want to continue working to improve the device even further and integrate other elements to air communication. In terms of using technology and wearable health monitoring systems, Dr. Phan says the new system has exciting potential to improve the quality of monitoring, diagnosis and treatment.
One such thing could be a wearable to help detect and report the level of UV radiation a person is exposed to throughout the day, which can help reduce skin cancer. the body. “The wide bandgap is important in this application because traditional silicon semiconductors have a narrow bandgap and do not absorb UV light,” said Dr. Phan says.
Nerve signals
The UNSW team also suggest that their innovation could be developed to create implantable biomedical devices where electrical currents can be monitored and directly affect nerve signals. Although such a device may not be available for at least 10 years, researchers are planning further tests with the aim of helping people with epilepsy – a neurological disorder where electrical impulses in the brain uncontrolled and sudden can cause seizures. .
“For people with epilepsy, when a seizure is about to happen, the brain sends abnormal signals that are the trigger,” Dr. Phan says.
“If we can create an implantable electronic device that can detect these abnormal patterns, it can also be used to apply electrical stimulation to prevent the seizure.”
One of the main challenges when it comes to implantable devices is how to enable such electronic systems.
Therefore, UNSW researchers are also trying to develop a magnetic coupling system that can be connected to 3D wide electron membranes to transmit energy from the body through an external antenna.
Source: University of New South Wales
