An implantable optogenetic stimulator wirelessly powered by flexible photovoltaics with near-infrared (NIR) light.

Optogenetics is a cutting-edge tool in neuroscience that employs light-sensitive proteins and controlled illumination for neuromodulation. Its main advantage is the ability to demonstrate causal relationships by manipulating the activity of specific neuronal populations and observing behavioral phenotypes. However, the tethering system used to deliver light to optogenetic tools can constrain both natural animal behaviors and experimental design.

Sustainably Powered, Multifunctional Flexible Feedback Implant by the Bifacial Design and Si Photovoltaics.

Advanced design and integration of functioning devices with secured power is of interest for many applications that require complicated, sophisticated, or multifunctional processes in confined environments such as in human bodies. Here, strategies for design and realization are introduced for multifunctional feedback implants with the bifacial design and silicon (Si) photovoltaics in flexible forms. The approaches provide efficient design spaces for flexible Si photovoltaics facing up for sustainable powering and multiple electronic components for feedback functions facing down for sensing, processing, and stimulating in human bodies.

Active photonic wireless power transfer into live tissues.

Recent advances in soft materials and mechanics activate development of many new types of electrical medical implants. Electronic implants that provide exceptional functions, however, usually require more electrical power, resulting in shorter period of usages although many approaches have been suggested to harvest electrical power in human bodies by resolving the issues related to power density, biocompatibility, tissue damage, and others. Here, we report an active photonic power transfer approach at the level of a full system to secure sustainable electrical power in human bodies.

Robotic Flexible Electronics with Self-Bendable Films.

Mechanical flexibility introduced in functional electronic devices has allowed electronics to avoid mechanical breakage, conform to nonplanar surfaces, or attach to deformable surfaces, leading to greatly expanded applications, and some research efforts have already led to commercialization. However, most of these devices are passively bendable by external driving forces. Actively bendable flexible thin film devices can be applied to new fields with new functionalities.