ChEMS Seminar: Materials and Assembly Approaches for Biodegradable Electronics

Abstract: A remarkable feature of modern integrated circuit technology is its ability to operate in a stable fashion, with almost perfect reliability and without physical or chemical change. Recently developed classes of electronic materials create an opportunity to engineer the opposite outcome, in the form of devices that can dissolve completely in water to yield completely benign end products. The enabled applications include zero-impact environmental monitors, 'green' consumer electronics and bio-resorbable biomedical implants - none of which is possible with technologies that exist today. This presentation describes foundational concepts in materials science and assembly processes for bioresorbable electronics, in 1D, 2D and 3D architectures, the latter enabled by approaches that draw inspiration from the ancient arts of kirigami and origami. Wireless sensors of intracranial temperature, pressure and electrophysiology designed for use in treatment of traumatic brain injury provide application examples.

Biography: Professor John A. Rogers obtained BA and BS degrees in chemistry and in physics from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1989. From MIT, he received SM degrees in physics and in chemistry in 1992 and the PhD degree in physical chemistry in 1995. From 1995 to 1997, Rogers was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows. He joined Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff in the Condensed Matter Physics Research Department in 1997, and served as Director of this department from the end of 2000 to 2002. He currently holds the Swanlund Chair at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, where he is also Director of the Seitz Materials Research Laboratory. His research has been recognized by many awards including a MacArthur Fellowship (2009), the Lemelson-MIT Prize (2011), the MRS Mid-Career Researcher Award (2013), the Smithsonian Award for American Ingenuity in the Physical Sciences (2013), and the ETH Zurich Chemical Engineering Medal (2015). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Hosted by: Professor Alon Gorodetsky