Active and passive electronics for smart implants

The portable consumer electronics necessitates functional elements to be lightweight, flexible, and wearable [1-4]. The unique possibility to adjust the shape of the devices offered by this alternative formulation of the electronics provides vast advantages over the conventional rigid devices particularly in medicine and consumer electronics. There is already a remarkable number of available flexible devices starting from interconnects, sensing elements towards complex platforms consisting of communication and diagnostic components.
We developed shapeable magnetoelectronics [5] – namely, flexible [6-8], printable [9,10], stretchable [11,12] and even imperceptible [13] magnetosensitive large area elements, which were completely missing in the family of flexible electronics, e.g. for smart skin applications. On the other hand, we realized self-assembled compact tubular microchannels based on strain engineering [14] with integrated passive sensory elements [15-17] and communication antenna devices [18] for on-chip and bio-medical applications, e.g. smart implants [19,20].
Combining these two research directions carried out at different length scales into a single truly interdisciplinary topic opens up the novel field of smart biomimetics [20]. In this respect, we demonstrated mechanically and electrically active compact biomimetic microelectronics, which can serve as a base for realization of novel regenerative neuronal cuff implants with unmatched functionalities. The biomimetic microelectronics can mechanically adapt to and impact the environment possessing the possibility to assess, adopt and communicate the environmental changes and even stimulate the environment electrically.
In my talk, these recent developments will be covered.

[1] M. G. Lagally, MRS Bull. 32, 57 (2007).
[2] J. A. Rogers et al., Nature 477, 45 (2011).
[3] S. Bauer et al., Adv. Mater. 26, 149 (2014).
[4] M. Kaltenbrunner et al., Nature 499, 458 (2013).
[5] D. Makarov et al., Appl. Phys. Rev. 3, 011101 (2016).
[6] G. Lin, D. Makarov et al., Lab Chip 14, 4050 (2014).
[7] M. Melzer, D. Makarov et al., Adv. Mater. 27, 1274 (2015).
[8] N. Münzenrieder, D. Makarov et al., Adv. Electron. Mater. (2016), 10.1002/aelm.201600188.
[9] D. Karnaushenko, D. Makarov et al., Adv. Mater. 27, 880 (2015).
[10] D. Karnaushenko, D. Makarov et al., Adv. Mater. 24, 4518 (2012).
[11] M. Melzer, D. Makarov et al., Adv. Mater. 27, 1333 (2015).
[12] M. Melzer, D. Makarov et al., Nano Lett. 11, 2522 (2011).
[13] M. Melzer, D. Makarov et al., Nat. Commun. 6, 6080 (2015).
[14] O. G. Schmidt et al., Nature 410, 168 (2001).
[15] I. Mönch, D. Makarov et al., ACS Nano 5, 7436 (2011).
[16] C. Müller, D. Makarov et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 022409 (2012).
[17] E. J. Smith, D. Makarov et al., Lab Chip 12, 1917 (2012).
[18] D. D. Karnaushenko, D. Makarov et al., NPG Asia Materials 7, e188 (2015).
[19] D. Karnaushenko, D. Makarov et al., Adv. Mater. 27, 6582 (2015).
[20] D. Karnaushenko, D. Makarov et al., Adv. Mater. 27, 6797 (2015).