Search

Temporary postoperative cardiac pacing requires devices with percutaneous leads and external wired power and control systems. This hardware introduces risks for infection, limitations on patient mobility, and requirements for surgical extraction procedures. Bioresorbable pacemakers mitigate some of these disadvantages, but they demand pairing with external, wired systems and secondary mechanisms for control. We present a transient closed-loop system that combines a time-synchronized, wireless network of skin-integrated devices with an advanced bioresorbable pacemaker to control cardiac rhythms, track cardiopulmonary status, provide multihaptic feedback, and enable transient operation with minimal patient burden. The result provides a range of autonomous, rate-adaptive cardiac pacing capabilities, as demonstrated in rat, canine, and human heart studies. This work establishes an engineering framework for closed-loop temporary electrotherapy using wirelessly linked, body-integrated bioelectronic devices.

The development of artificial tactile receptor systems is important in the fields of prosthetic devices, interfaces for the metaverse, and sensors. A pressure sensor and memory device may be used in this system to replicate the tactile detecting capabilities of human skin. The implementation of systems that take into account mass production and miniaturization is still difficult. Here, a flexible artificial tactile receptor built using conventional semiconductor processes that combine a vertically stacked piezoelectric sensor with neuromorphic memory is presented. As a fundamental component for both sensors and memory, hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO) formed by using semiconductor deposition technique is introduced. Due to its exceptional piezoelectric performance, the morphotropic phase boundary of HZO is studied. The entire materials and processes are highly compatible with conventional semiconductor processes, including microwave annealing‐based low‐temperature crystallization. Even after 10,000 times of bending stress, the sensor and memory constructed on a flexible substrate exhibit consistent pressure detection characteristics over a wide range of 2–25 kPa. The feasibility of the approach is further demonstrated by a deep neural network simulation, which reached 90.8% braille recognition accuracy. Wearable electronics and medical devices are two examples of industrial domains that can use these flexible, exceptionally durable devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensations of heat and touch produced by receptors in the skin are of essential importance for perceptions of the physical environment, with a particularly powerful role in interpersonal interactions. Advances in technologies for replicating these sensations in a programmable manner have the potential not only to enhance virtual/augmented reality environments but they also hold promise in medical applications for individuals with amputations or impaired sensory function. Engineering challenges are in achieving interfaces with precise spatial resolution, power-efficient operation, wide dynamic range, and fast temporal responses in both thermal and in physical modulation, with forms that can extend over large regions of the body. This paper introduces a wireless, skin-compatible interface for thermo-haptic modulation designed to address some of these challenges, with the ability to deliver programmable patterns of enhanced vibrational displacement and high-speed thermal stimulation. Experimental and computational investigations quantify the thermal and mechanical efficiency of a vertically stacked design layout in the thermo-haptic stimulators that also supports real-time, closed-loop control mechanisms. The platform is effective in conveying thermal and physical information through the skin, as demonstrated in the control of robotic prosthetics and in interactions with pressure/temperature-sensitive touch displays., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

With the surge in perovskite research, practical features for future applications are desired to be secured, but the reliability of the materials and the use of hazardous Pb are longstanding problems. Here, an air-stable Cs 2 SnI 6 (CSI) is prepared via diluted hydriodic acid solvent-based precursor optimization during scalable hydrothermal growth. Materials characterization is performed using various elemental peak analyses and crystallographic identification. The resulting CSI exhibits long-term operating stability over 6 months, i) at elevated temperatures, ii) in ambient air, and iii) under light illumination from UV to near-infrared. More importantly, to demonstrate an intriguing class of applications up to system level, physically detachable CSI photodetector arrays (PD-arrays), integrated with micro-light-emitting-diodes (μ-LEDs) arrays, are successfully fabricated. In addition, 3 × 3 flexible CSI PDs are fully operational, even in air, and their spatial uniformity in pixels is quantitatively evaluated. The charge-transport mechanisms of the CSI PDs under light and elevated temperature are assessed via temperature-dependent characterization from 148 to 373 K, implying the involvement of 3D variable-range hopping. Multicycle evaluation of the CSI PD-arrays confirms their operational stability in AC and DC modes, demonstrating this platform's potential benefit for wireless optical interconnection in advanced Si technology., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)