Dissolving Circuits

Integrated circuits that dissolve completely in water may be the next step in developing a variety of new devices from “green” consumer electronics to implantable medical devices that disappear when they’ve performed their intended function.

These circuits combine advances in materials chemistry, studies of dissolution, engineering development of components and sensors, and new fabrication techniques to address the challenges of biocompatibility and high volume manufacturing. Biomedical implants represent one major area of application for physically “transient” devices. For example, brain monitors that aid in rehabilitation or stimulators that accelerate bone growth could be made to disappear through resorption into the body, eliminating the trauma of removing them surgically. Or devices that are designed for programmed drug delivery could be triggered by the healing process to administer medications only as long as they are needed.