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John A. Rogers
Lee J. Flory-Founder Chair Professor in Engineering
Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Bioengineering, Mechanical Science and Engineering, and Chemistry
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Semiconductor Devices Inspired By and Integrated With Biology

Time: 3:00 - 4:00 PM

Maxwell-Dworkin, Room 119
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) campus
33 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Abstract: Biology is curved, soft and elastic; silicon wafers are not.  Semiconductor technologies that can bridge this gap in form and mechanics will create new opportunities in devices that adopt biologically inspired designs or require intimate integration with the human body.  This talk describes the development of ideas for electronics that offer the performance of state-of-the-art, wafer-based systems but with the mechanical properties of a rubber band.  Roger explains the underlying materials science and mechanics of these approaches, and illustrate their use in (1) bio-integrated, ‘tissue-like’ electronics with unique capabilities for mapping cardiac and neural electrophysiology, and (2) bio-inspired, ‘eyeball’ cameras with exceptional imaging properties enabled by curvilinear, Petzval designs.