Check out our new device platform that allows for ever smaller wireless light sources! These devices might one day allow to illuminate the human body from the inside. Our novel approach is based on “acoustic antennas” that serve as both substrate and power source for custom-developed OLED deposited on top of these. Our antennas convert energy from a magnetic field into a mechanical oscillation and subsequently into an electrical current via an effect known as the composite magnetoelectric effect. Unlike a classical antenna, an acoustic antenna can be very small, even when harvesting energy from a low frequency magnetic field. The new devices operate at sub-megahertz frequencies, a frequency range used for example for submarine communication(!)  as waves at this frequency are only weakly absorbed by water.

Biomedical implants have already revolutionized healthcare, providing life-changing solutions for many individuals. Electrode-based implants, such as cochlear implants, cardiac pacemakers, and brain stimulators, function based on the electrical excitability of human cells. They can help to restore hearing, normalize heart function, and mitigate the effects of debilitating diseases like Parkinson's disease. Our wireless light-emitting device now target optical stimulation which has emerged as a promising alternative to electrical stimulation because it can be more cell selective and even enable the stimulation of individual cells via genetic modification. Such techniques have already shown promising results in early clinical trials, for instance, in treating an otherwise untreatable eye disease. For many emerging applications, multiple sites must be stimulated independently, and this is why modern brain stimulators often incorporate a large number of electrodes. This approach is most prominently pursued by companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. The ideal stimulator, however, would consist of tiny, distributed devices, which could be powered and read wirelessly centimetres inside the body, eliminating the need for wires into and through the body altogether. With our new device platform, we have moved a step closer to such an ‘ideal stimulator’, combining minimal device size, low operation frequency, and optical stimulation. 

Check out the paper here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adm7613

And read the press release on the work here: https://portal.uni-koeln.de/es/universitaet/aktuell/press-releases/single-news/forschende-entwickeln-winzige-kabellose-gluehbirnen-fuer-biomedizinische-anwendungen