Silicon Nanomembranes in Bioresorbable Electronics

Monocrystalline semiconductor nanomembranes represent versatile classes of materials that enable a broad range of unconventional electronic and optoelectronic technologies – due to their mechanical flexibility, their chemical characteristics and surface properties, their capacity for heterogeneous integration and/or their unusual transport properties. This talk describes recent progress in the use of silicon nanomembranes as bioresorbable active elements of electronics for temporary implants, uniquely enabled by their ability to naturally dissolve in biofluids to biocompatible end products. The focus includes silicon nanomembranes in bipolar junction transistors as light-activated electronic switching elements for self-powered cardiac pacemakers, for diaphragm pacers and for phrenic nerve stimulators.