Also: epidermal electronics, soft neural implants, e-dura
Soft, ultrathin electronics bend and stretch with the body, so they can sit on skin or on the brain and spinal cord more gently than rigid devices.
Readiness: lab lab studies · prototype demonstrated objects · commercial products or buildings in real use · review summaries of other studies.
Minev and colleagues made a soft implant that matches spinal tissue and worked long term in rats.
Built / tested: e-dura
As reported in: Minev, Musienko, Hirsch et al. (2015). Electronic dura mater for long-term multimodal neural interfaces. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1260318
Kim and colleagues built ultrathin electronics on silk films that dissolve and wrap onto brain tissue.
Built / tested: silk-supported electrode array
As reported in: Kim, Viventi, Amsden et al. (2010). Dissolvable films of silk fibroin for ultrathin conformal bio-integrated electronics. Nature Materials. doi:10.1038/nmat2745
Kim and colleagues made skin-like electronics that stick to the skin like a temporary tattoo.
Built / tested: electronic tattoo
As reported in: Kim, Lu, Ma et al. (2011). Epidermal Electronics. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1206157