#biomedical implants

Rice University researchers are paving the way to developing soft robots that can adapt to the world around them. They developed a 3D printing technique, which they call reactive 4D printing, for making material that morphs into different shapes when exposed to changes in temperature, tension, or an electric current....

By Lisa Zyga - Researchers working in a materials science lab are literally watching their work disappear before their eyes—but intentionally so. They're developing water-soluble integrated circuits that dissolve in water or biofluids in months, weeks, or even a few days. This technology, called transient electronics, could have applications for biomedical implants, zero-waste sensors, and many other semiconductor devices. The researchers, led by John A. Rogers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Fiorenzo Omenetto at Tufts University, have published a study in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters in which they analyzed the performance and dissolution times of various semiconductor materials. READ MORE ON PHYS.ORG Ref: Lan Yin, et al. "Materials and fabrication sequences for water soluble silicon integrated circuits at the 90 nm node." Applied Physics Letters. DOI: 10.1063/1.4905321

As the only FEA approved process, EBM might present itself as a unique process capable of making customized spine disks. Once the integrity issue of the porous surface could be fully solved, there could be a huge potential for this process.