Researchers Develop Soft Memory that May Usher in New Biocompatible Electronics

July 17th, 2011 by: Shane McGlaun

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There are a number of reasons that you might want to implant electronics into the human brain. There are also numerous devices that are in testing and may one day come to market that are for treating various issues that start in the brain from depression to pain to controlling seizures. The problem with implantable electronics today is that most of them are rigid, and the body tends to reject anything foreign.

Researchers have made a new breakthrough in memory for electronics that is inside a soft gel with the consistency of Jell-O. The soft memory is biocompatible and the body should not reject it if implanted. The new memory is also suitable to working in a wet environment such as the brain. The soft memory can’t store much data right now, but the researchers are tweaking it.

The material works by creating an oxidized skin when a positive charge is applied to the material. The skin prevents it from conducting electricity and makes it the “0″ needed for binary code. When a negative charge is applied, the skin disappears and it conducts electricity making the “1″ needed for binary code. The new discovery has a long way to go before it is ready for medical procedures on humans.

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