Stretchable silicon camera next step to artificial retina

August 6, 2008
Stretchable silicon camera next step to artificial retina

Enlarge

The electronic-eye camera developed by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University. The array of pixels is visible through the magnified image created by the lens. Image: Beckman Institute, University of Illinois

(PhysOrg.com) -- By combining stretchable optoelectronics and biologically inspired design, scientists have created a remarkable imaging device, with a layout based on the human eye.

As reported in the Aug. 7 issue of the journal Nature, researchers at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University have developed a high-performance, hemispherical "eye" camera using an array of single-crystalline silicon detectors and electronics, configured in a stretchable, interconnected mesh.

Stretchable silicon camera next step to artificial retina
Enlarge

This image shows a close-up view of the silicon photodetector pixels and electronics interconnected by arc-shaped ribbons. The scale bar represents 10 micrometers (millionths of a meter). Credit: Northwestern University and University of Illinois

The work opens new possibilities for advanced camera design. It also foreshadows artificial retinas for bionic eyes similar in concept to those in the movie "Terminator" and other popular science fiction.

"Conformally wrapping surfaces with stretchable sheets of optoelectronics provides a practical route for integrating well-developed planar device technologies onto complex curvilinear objects," said John Rogers, the Flory-Founder Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Illinois, and corresponding author of the paper.

"This approach allows us to put electronics in places where we couldn't before," Rogers said. "We can now, for the first time, move device design beyond the flatland constraints of conventional wafer-based systems."

The camera's design is based on that of the human eye, which has a simple, single-element lens and a hemispherical detector. The camera integrates such a detector with a hemispherical cap and imaging lens, to yield a system with the overall size, shape and layout of the human eye.

To make the camera, the researchers begin by molding a thin rubber membrane in the shape of a hemisphere. The rubber membrane is then stretched with a specialized mechanical stage to form a flat drumhead.

Next, a prefabricated focal plane array and associated electronics – created by conventional planar processing – are transferred from a silicon wafer to the tensioned, drumhead membrane.

When the tension is released, the membrane returns to its original shape. This process compresses the focal plane array, causing specially designed electrical interconnects to delaminate from the rubber surface and form arcs, pinned on the ends by detector pixels. These deformations accommodate strains associated with the planar to hemispherical transformation, without stressing the silicon, as confirmed by mechanics modeling performed by researchers at Northwestern.

The array package is then transfer printed to a matching hemispherical glass substrate. Attaching a lens and connecting the camera to external electronics completes the assembly. The camera has the size and shape of a human eye.

Over the last 20 years, many research groups have pursued electronic eye systems of this general type, but none has achieved a working camera.

"Optics simulations and imaging studies show that these systems provide a much broader field of view, improved illumination uniformity and fewer aberrations than flat cameras with similar imaging lenses," said Rogers, who also is a researcher at the Beckman Institute and at the university's Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory.

"Hemispherical detector arrays are also much better suited for use as retinal implants than flat detectors," Rogers said. "The ability to wrap high quality silicon devices onto complex surfaces and biological tissues adds very interesting and powerful capabilities to electronic and optoelectronic device design, with many new application possibilities."

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

4.8 /5 (38 votes)  

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

thales
Aug 06, 2008

Rank: not rated yet
Microwave powered contact lenses FTW baby.
Suzu
Aug 06, 2008

Rank: not rated yet
Eye implants soon* coming! No need for devices to serf the net when the eye serves all those purposes.
Oderfla
Aug 07, 2008

Rank: not rated yet
Maybe someday I'll be a cyborg.
thales
Aug 07, 2008

Rank: not rated yet
Oh Oderfla. Maybe you will. Maybe you will.
Rank 4.8 /5 (38 votes)
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Calling function with no input argument
    created1 hour ago
  • Force free body diagram problem on gym equipment
    created2 hours ago
  • Empirical data regarding shower heads and water
    created10 hours ago
  • feed hold button on CNC lathe
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • RFAC in Fortran
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • dynamics 2/32
    createdFeb 08, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - General Engineering

More news stories

Zuckerberg's focus drives Facebook's ascent

When Mark Zuckerberg showed up to rent Judy Fusco's Los Altos, Calif., house in the fall of 2004, soon after he'd arrived in Silicon Valley, the landlord was immediately struck by his confidence.

Technology / Internet

created 36 minutes ago | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Netflix light on flicks as viewers soak up TV shows

Like most fresh faces that arrive in Hollywood, Netflix wanted to be a movie star. But now it's learning what many in Tinseltown have known for decades: Movies are sexy, but the real money is in television.

Technology / Business

created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission

Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. They’re a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel — such as an optical fiber o ...

Technology / Computer Sciences

created 4 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Small modular reactor design could be a 'SUPERSTAR'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Though most of today's nuclear reactors are cooled by water, we've long known that there are alternatives; in fact, the world's first nuclear-powered electricity in 1951 came from a reactor ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created 4 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

Sony's Hirai refuses to abandon dire TV business

Struggling Japanese entertainment giant Sony will not abandon its cash-bleeding television business, its incoming CEO says, but he acknowledges tough decisions lie ahead including over redundancies.

Technology / Business

created 2 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


New understanding of DNA repair could eventually lead to cancer therapy

A research group in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta is hoping its latest discovery could one day be used to develop new therapies that target certain types of cancers.

Antidepressants and pregnancy: Women must consider the impact of drugs on baby, and of depression on baby, themselves

Upon learning they are pregnant, most women dutifully nix the alcohol, sushi and caffeine. But what about antidepressants?

Both maternal and paternal age linked to autism

Older maternal and paternal age are jointly associated with having a child with autism, according to a recently published study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

Night, weekend delivery OK for babies with birth defects

Weekday delivery is no better than night or weekend delivery for infants with birth defects, according to a new study presented today at The Pregnancy Meeting, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual conference. ...

Sonic Cradle lands spot in TED exhibition

A Simon Fraser University graduate student project that melds music, meditation and modern technology has landed a rare spot as an exhibit at TEDActive 2012 in Palm Springs, California this month.

From virginity to Viagra

Americans will spend more than $17 billion on Valentine's Day, but far less on programs like sex education for adolescents. The editors of the new book, Sex for Life, From Virginity to Viagra, How Sexuality Changes Throughout ...