Edible Electronics: Recent Results and Perspectives

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 circuitry and components, towards future integrated edible electronic systems. Perspectives for adoption of edible electronic systems for sensors and control in future edible robots will also be shared.