Project description
The future of edible electronic sensors
From cardiac pacemakers to retinal implants, implantable medical electronic devices have been around for decades. Scientists today are developing tiny implantable and ingestible electronic devices that can be consumed orally for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The EU-funded ELFO project is taking the next step. It’s designing new enabling technology for disruptive edible electronic systems: imperceptible circuits and sensors that can perform a function and then be degraded within the body, either digested or even metabolised. With applications in advanced biomedical devices for continuous monitoring of the health status within the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract (bleeding in the GI tract is a dangerous and impactful condition that can benefit from early detection), it will also provide electronic tags for food monitoring, serving public health. The goal is to gain more information about what we eat and how it is assimilated, as well as enabling mass health screening thanks to biomedical devices that can be self-administered, i.e. swallowed, without supervision.
Objective
ELFO will provide the foundations of a new enabling technology for disruptive edible electronic systems, with applications in advanced biomedical devices for continuous monitoring of the health status within the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract, as well as in electronic tags for food monitoring, serving public health and providing at the same time a very powerful tool against counterfeiting. These systems will be unperceivable and mass produced mainly with mask-less, printing and direct-writing methods. Besides being completely safe for ingestion, such devices will also be perceived as food, favouring public acceptance. Such an ambitious plan will be implemented by: i) creating knowledge on electronic properties of food and food derivatives and complementing them with edible solution-processable, mainly carbon-based semiconductors, thus developing an extended library of edible electronic materials; ii) developing large-area, solution-based, printing and direct-writing scalable processes with high lateral resolution for the precise patterning of edible functional materials; iii) developing edible electronic components required in systems, from logic to power and sensors; iv) validating the progress with two proof-of-concept systems, an edible radio-frequency pill with controlled drug delivery, answering the need for compliance monitoring devices and actuators within the gut, and an edible passive food Radio-Frequency identification tag, answering the need for certification and anti-counterfeiting devices directly onto or into food products. ELFO will give solid engineering grounds to the visionary perspectives of edible electronics, introducing imperceptible intelligence in any edible item, thus accessing more information on what we eat, how it is assimilated and enabling biomedical devices for mass health screening.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technologyradio frequency
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic health
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- natural sciencesphysical scienceselectromagnetism and electronicssemiconductivity
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
16163 Genova
Italy