Flexible LEDs could get under your skin

AUTHOR: Inavate


The research, led by John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US, and published in Nature Materials developed flexible arrays 2.5 μm thick and 100 x 100 μm square, which is much smaller than any commercially available array.
The PDMS substrate is flexible enough that the circuits can still function even if twisted or stretched by even as much as 75 per cent. Rogers said most research has concentrated on organic LEDs (OLEDs), which are extremely sensitive to water and oxygen (both commonly found in organic tissue), but the flexible arrays are encapsulated in a thin layer of silicon rubber, which makes them waterproof and allows them to function well when implanted or completely immersed in biofluids.
Potential biomedical applications for the LEDs include implantable patches for monitoring wound healing, for use in diagnosis or spectroscopy, or to control the delivery of drugs triggered by light in photodynamic drug therapy.