Advances in bioresorbable electronics and uses in biomedical sensing

Modern electronics are fundamental not only to medical diagnostics, data acquisition and storage, and communication in healthcare at large, but are increasingly imperative to next-generation implantable biomedical devices and treatments. The new and expanding class of bioresorbable electronics capable of complete transience, or degradation, in physiological environments promises to enable surgical implantation without subsequent removal of the device. In situ degradation of such devices attenuates or circumvents downfalls of non-resorbable acute implants not limited to costs and complications of surgical device removal in addition to foreign body responses and potential sequelae from tissue obstruction. Transient biomedical electronics thus represent a critical leap toward translatable diagnostic, monitoring, and acute treatment devices. This chapter provides an overview of the developments of the composition and processing methods used to design bioresorbable electronic medical devices since the first fully transient electronic device in 2012. Applications of bioresorbable electronics from biosensing and tissue engineering to controlled drug release, wireless communication, and energy and memory storage are highlighted along with current research in methods enabling on-demand transience for preset device lifetimes and multifunctionality. The authors expect that this chapter will provide an insightful discussion on the progression of bioresorbable electronics for medical applications outlining materials and pertinent novel devices to guide future innovations of transient electronic devices for improving clinical care and patient-specific medicine.