Towards Edible Electronic Systems for Biomedical and Food Monitoring Applications

Edible electronics envisions a technology that is safe for ingestion, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective. Differently from “ingestible” electronics, it aims at realizing electronic devices that are degraded within the body after performing their function, either digested or even metabolized, thus removing any retention hazard. Edible electronics could potentially target a significant number of biomedical applications, such as remote healthcare monitoring, and of applications for food quality monitoring as well, such as edible electronic tags directly in contact with food. Here I will first give an introduction to this emerging field and propose long-term opportunities in terms of environmentally friendly smart technologies, remote healthcare monitoring, along with the challenges ahead. Then, I will report on our recent progress in the development of edible electrolyte-gated field-effect transistors, and of edible logic circuits made with them, as well as on edible sensors for the monitoring of parameters in the gastro-intestinal tract and of conservation of perishable food. I will also share perspectives for adoption of such edible components in future edible electronic systems, both in terms of power requirements for edible energy storage devices and of communication strategies.