Seminar on “Materials for Biodegradable Electronics” – John Rogers, Northwestern University

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Abstract:

A remarkable feature of modern integrated circuit technology is its ability to operate in a stable fashion, with almost perfect reliability, 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 bioresorbable biomedical implants – none of which is possible with technologies that exist today. This presentation describes foundational concepts in chemistry, 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.

Speaker Bio:

Professor Rogers is the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University.
Dr. Rogers completed his Ph.D. at MIT in 1995, studying physical chemistry. He was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard University Society of Fellows and in 1997 joined Bell Laboratories where he became Director of the Condensed Matter Physics Research Department. He was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2003-16, after which he took his current position among the faculty at Northwestern University. His research includes fundamental and applied aspects of nano and molecular scale fabrication as well as materials and patterning techniques for unusual electronic and photonic devices, with an emphasis on bio-integrated and bio-inspired systems. He has published more than 550 papers and is an inventor on over 100 patents and patent applications, more than 70 of which are licensed or in active use by large companies and startups that he has co-founded.

This event is co-hosted by the University of Michigan ACS POLY/PMSE Student Chapter and the Biointerfaces Institute Researcher Group.