Chapter 5
Syringe Injectable Electronics
5.1 Introduction........................................
With recent advancement in nanotechnology and materials science [ 1 , 2 ], we have
been able to fabricate electronics onflexible, stretchable and 3D substrates to cover
electrical functional units on soft and non-planar surfaces for monitoring, control
and making smart systems [ 3 – 12 ]. New requirements have been raised that elec-
tronics need to be implemented into objects with a minimal invasiveness followed
by a 3D distribution of nano- and micro-scale sensor units in a large volume while
maintaining mechanical ultra-flexibility [ 13 , 14 ]. This is especially important for
thefield of bioelectronics, which require a seamlessly integration of electronics with
behaving animal at single cellular level throughout the whole tissue. Previous
chapters have shown examples involving construction of 3D soft electronic net-
works and building of polymers or synthetic tissues within electronic networks, yet,
these examples are not applicable to existing objects and behaving animals [ 8 ]. In
addition, while we can use rigid substrates to deliver electronics into targeted
objects and release electronics from that substrate; however, these methods intro-
duce significant damage from the insertion of rigid substrate materials further
precluding a minimal invasive process [ 13 ].
Here we introduce a new strategy to meet those requirements through encap-
sulating electronics units into a freestanding mesh polymeric network, delivering
these electronics into target system via a minimal invasive syringe-injection process
that has been widely used in clinic medicine [ 15 – 18 ] and restoring injected elec-
tronics to their original geometric configuration. In this study, silicon nanowires
[ 19 , 20 ] were used as semiconductor components and metal electrodes [ 21 ] were
used as electrical sensing units given their nano- and micro-scale structure, multi-
functionalities and electrical and chemical recording capability.
©Springer International Publishing AG 2018
J. Liu,Biomimetics Through Nanoelectronics, Springer Theses,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68609-7_5
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