+44 (0)24 7671 8970
More publications     •     Advertise with us     •     Contact us
 
Loading...
News Article

Micro-LED-based system powers medical implants

News

Researchers in Korea develop photonic wireless system from skin-attachable micro-LED patch and implanted photovoltaic device

Over the past few decades, medical technology seen various advances in terms of the scope and efficiency of implant devices. For example, developments in medical research have led to the emergence of electronic implants, such as pacemakers to regulate the heart rate and cerebral spinal shunts to control the flow of spinal fluid.

Most of these medical devices, including the pacemaker, require a constant source of energy to operate. Naturally, this causes some limitations: batteries, which provide an energy source for the implants, have a finite lifespan. Once the battery power gets exhausted, there is no other option but to perform invasive surgery to replace the battery, which poses a risk of surgical complications, such as bruising, infections, and other adverse events.

In a new study published in PNAS, a research group from South Korea, led by Jongho Lee at GIST, dug deeper to find a solution: they attempted to develop a strategy to recharge the internal battery of devices without invasive surgery or risky penetrative procedures. Lee explains, "One of the greatest demands in biomedical electronic implants is to provide a sustainable electrical power for extended healthy life without battery replacement surgeries." Although this is a tricky concept, Lee believes that the answer lies in the "translucency" of living tissue.

This can be explained through an interesting phenomenon. When you hold your hand up to a powerful light, you can see that the edges of your hand glow as the light passes through your skin. Taking inspiration from this, Lee and his team developed an 'active photonic power transfer' method, which can generate electrical power in the body.

This novel system consisted of two parts: a skin-attachable micro-LED source patch - which can generate photons that would penetrate through the tissues - and a photovoltaic device integrated into a medical implant - which can capture the photons and generate electrical energy. This system provides a sustainable way of supplying the medical implant device with enough power to avoid any high-risk replacement methods. Lee says, "Currently, a lack of a reliable source of power limits the functionality and performance of implant devices. If we can secure enough electrical power in our body, new types of medical implants with diverse functions and high performance can be developed."

When the scientists tested this power system in mice, they found that this wireless power transfer system is easy to use, regardless of weather, clothes, indoor or outdoor conditions, etc. The light photons emitted from the source patch successfully penetrated live tissues in mice and recharged the device in a wireless and convenient manner. "These results enable the long-term use of currently available implants, in addition to accelerating emerging types of electrical implants that require higher power to provide diverse, convenient diagnostic and therapeutic functions in human bodies," says Lee, pleased with the efforts of his team and already looking forward to furthering their experiments. He concludes, "Our device would probably not work for 'Iron Man,' but it can provide enough power for medical implants."

'Active Photonic Wireless Power Transfer into Live Tissues' by Juho Kim et al; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2020

EMCORE announces integration of PICs into its products
Scottish photonics consortium wins £4.7m in UKRI funding
Yuanjie Semiconductor to supply lasers to POET
Fraunhofer IPMS announces government funding for quantum photonic chip
POET Technologies partners with Yuanjie Semiconductor Technology
SiLC announces silicon photonics systems for machine vision
Scientists develop novel optical modulators for integrated photonics
Scientists report integrated photodiodes on TFLN
Coherent wins award for innovative photonics product
FBH to present quantum technology developments at EQTC 2023
Skorpios and FormericaOE demonstrate PICs in 800G optical transceivers
EFFECT Photonics verifies fully integrated InP PIC
NASA awards grant for silicon photonics project
OpenLight and Spark Photonics partner on PIC design services
DustPhotonics announces 800G chip for hyperscale data centres and AI
Lightwave Logic Receives Industry Innovation Award
Imec announces SiGe BiCMOS optical receiver
SiFotonics announces silicon photonics 800G LPO solutions
Rockley Photonics progresses noninvasive biomarker monitoring
MantiSpectra secures €4 million for miniaturised spectrometers
Sivers to demo next-gen laser arrays at ECOC 2023
ASMPT AMICRA and Teramount collaborate on silicon photonics packaging
Quantum Computing Inc. selects Arizona site for photonic chip foundry
German government to fund ams OSRAM optoelectronic semiconductor development
Luceda Photonics introduces new PIC design software
Vodafone explores silicon photonics for future mobile networks
Coherent introduces 1200 mW pump laser module
Photonics startups invited to apply to Luminate NY accelerator
New tool could improve lithography for smaller, faster chips
InP-based lasers surpass 2.2 mm
Indie Semiconductor buys Exalos AG
New technique controls direction and wavelength of emitted heat

×
Search the news archive

To close this popup you can press escape or click the close icon.
Logo
×
Logo
×
Register - Step 1

You may choose to subscribe to the PIC Magazine, the PIC Newsletter, or both. You may also request additional information if required, before submitting your application.


Please subscribe me to:

 

You chose the industry type of "Other"

Please enter the industry that you work in:
Please enter the industry that you work in: