Miniaturized Tissue-Mounted Electronics with Wireless Power
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current tissue-mounted electronic and photonic systems face challenges such as adverse physiological effects, immune responses, and delamination issues when integrated with certain tissues, particularly those with rapid growth or fluid exchange, limiting their long-term reliability and compatibility with efficient manufacturing for cost-effective implementation.
Innovation Solution
Development of miniaturized tissue-mounted electronic systems with flexible, thin, and robust designs that minimize interfacial stresses, featuring substrates with inorganic and organic components, and adaptable geometries to ensure conformal integration without inflammation or significant heat and fluid exchange disruption, enabling long-term adherence and functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If tissue-mounted electronic systems are integrated with tissues having rapid growth or fluid exchange, then sensing and communication functionality is achieved, but delamination and immune response occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs flexible, thin-film substrates that conform to tissue surfaces and accommodate tissue growth and movement without delamination. These flexible substrates are engineered to match the mechanical properties of underlying tissues, allowing the electronic system to remain adhered while the tissue grows or undergoes fluid exchange.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies physical and chemical parameters of the substrate and interface materials to reduce immunogenicity and improve biocompatibility. This includes adjusting surface energy, porosity, and mechanical stiffness to match tissue properties, thereby reducing immune response while maintaining functional integration.
2Strength
If miniaturized device formats are used, then conformal integration and reduced interfacial stresses are achieved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the electronic system into modular, miniaturized components that can be independently manufactured and then assembled. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function while reducing overall device size and interfacial stress concentration, despite increasing assembly complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements nested, multi-layer structures where electronic components are integrated within conformal substrates and encapsulation layers. This nested architecture allows miniaturization while maintaining mechanical strength through distributed stress pathways across multiple scales.
3Measurement precision
If conformal contact with tissue surface is established, then sensing performance is improved, but heat and fluid exchange disruption occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs porous substrate materials and encapsulation layers that allow controlled fluid and heat exchange between the tissue and environment. The porous structure maintains conformal contact for accurate sensing while permitting physiological processes like sweat evaporation and thermal regulation to continue uninterrupted.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediate layers between the electronic components and tissue surface that mediate heat and fluid transfer. These intermediary layers are engineered with specific thermal and hydraulic conductivities to maintain thermal equilibrium and fluid balance while enabling close contact for sensing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The systems achieve long-term conformal integration with tissues like fingernails, toenails, and earlobes, reducing sensory perception and energy release rates, thereby enhancing mechanical strength and placement versatility while minimizing interfacial stresses, supporting applications in sensing, actuating, and communication without adverse effects.
Implementation Method 1
The coil is configured to transfer power wirelessly to a near field communication (NFC) chip
Implementation Method 2
The coil is configured to transfer power wirelessly to a near field communication (NFC) chip, and/or to communicate with an external NFC enabled device
Data Source
AI summary
The invention provides systems and methods for tissue-mounted electronics and photonics. Devices of some embodiments of the invention implement high performance, and optionally flexible, device components having miniaturized formats in device architectures that minimize adverse physical effects to tissue and/or reduce interfacial stresses when mounted on tissue surfaces. In some embodiments, the invention provides complementary tissue mounting strategies providing for mechanically robust and/or long term integration of the present devices, for example, via mounting on tissue surfaces that are not subject to rapid growth or exfoliation processes such as the fingernail, toenail, tooth or earlobe. Devices of the invention are versatile and support a broad range of applications for sensing, actuating and communication including applications for near field communication, for example, for password authentication, electronic transactions and biometric sensing.