Probably the single most troubling thing about the inescapable
advance of technological obsolescence is the rate at which old devices
are being thrown out. It’s not just the landfills full of last year’s
superphone, nor the rare Earth elements we’re mining at incredible
speeds, but the sheer, simple waste of it, as well.
But what if electronics were designed on the molecular level to be
biodegradable? What if recycling a phone was as simple as buying a small
bottle of solvent and leaving the phone for several hours? What if you
could pour out your old iPhone and return the insoluble metals left over for a discount on your next handset?
That’s one of the many possible uses for a new technology that could
see integrated circuits built on soluble chips, along with many of the
other pieces they require. Professor John A. Rogers and his team of
researchers at the University of Illinois have made significant progress
in the field, and they have a lot of ideas about how it might change the world.
Beyond the applications for recycling, the team sees biomedical
science as a major application. Currently, inserting foreign technology
is difficult not just in the implantation, but in the extraction as
well; many pieces of technology are simply left inside a patient, since
that often ends up being less dangerous than an additional surgery. This
research could lead to a future for implanted technology in which
implants simply melt away into the blood-stream, either as a slow,
natural reaction beginning at the moment of insertion or as a catalyzed
reaction begun by an injected agent.
In either case, the ability to break down electronics
in a biologically safe way has huge benefits. Environmental monitors
could be peppered throughout an area without the need to worry about
collecting them again later. Whether it’s tracking bird populations on a
grassy tundra or measuring the chemistry of a oceanographic oil spill,
the ability to use technology with a built-in timer will open up all new
applications, or make feasible old ideas that could never succeed
practically.
Though
the team doesn’t mention it in the video, the US military has taken an
interest in the concept. It’s not hard to image why, as covert
technology advances along lines from miniaturization to autonomous
artificial intelligence. In surveillance, the problem of extraction is
just as profound as it is for surgery. The ability to insert a drone
designed to die after a prescribed amount of time, to liquify or break
down beyond the point of recognition, is extremely enticing to DARPA,
the military’s advanced research arm. DARPA has thrown significant
funding behind this effort, and no doubt has a wide array of application
in mind.
Of course, not every component of modern circuit boards can be so
easily replaced with a degradable polymer. Their primary material of
interest is actually a purified form of the silk produced by silk worms
for cocoons. That works for the plastic boards and other simple
substrates, but efficient conducting materials are much harder. They
found that ribbons of magnesium work well as conductors since it will
naturally break down to a molecular level when immersed in water.
Super-thin sheets of silicon, used for semiconductors will break down in
much the same way.
It’s also one thing to say that magnesium and silicon are safe to
release into the body, but quite another to get government approval to
test that idea. There’s really no telling how the body will react to
such a release of chemicals into the bloodstream without directly
testing it. That’s a hard road to hoe, however, one studded with
predictable and unavoidable delays. Couple this with public fears (well
founded and otherwise) about putting wireless technology in their
bodies, and about implants of all types, and you have an issue these
researchers will likely have to battle for several years to come.
In the end, the military and industrial applications for this
technology will almost certainly beat the medical to market. Still, it’s
an exciting idea that has to potential to change the way a whole sector
of computer technology is both made and used.