Biointegrated flexible inorganic light emitting diodes

Min Koo, So Young Park, Keon Jae Lee
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

Abstract: The use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as therapeutic tools has been actively studied over the past few decades due to their advantages of high safety, low cost, excellent portability, and wide bandwidth. In addition, their application in biomedical fields has been expanded to such areas as nerve stimulation, photodynamic therapy, and LED-based biosensors, and LED lights are thus receiving attention as alternatives to conventional biomedical light sources such as lasers. Recently, several developments in the area of flexible inorganic LEDs along with advanced nanoelectronic technologies have pointed toward the possibility of new innovative biomethodologies in the near future. In this paper, we review the salient features of high-performance biointegrated LED applications, together with future challenges for the realization of implantable, flexible biointegrated electronic devices.

Keywords: flexible, inorganic, biointegrated, light-emitting diodes, nerve stimulation, photodynamic therapy, biosensor