It's the size of a dust mite.
Electronics are getting imperceptibly small, opening new avenues for medical technology to place advanced monitoring and treatment devices inside our bodies. And Columbia University engineers just demonstrated a new and revolutionary version of this, creating the world's smallest single-chip system ever developed, according to a recent studyAnd, critically, the tiny new chip can be implanted via a hypodermic needle to measure internal body temperature, and potentially much more.
Typically, small electronics feature radio frequency modules capable of transmitting and receiving electromagnetic signals, this method generates wavelengths too large to originate from devices as small as the new one. Alternatively, ultrasound wavelengths are far smaller at specific frequencies because the speed of sound is a lot slower than the speed of light at which all electromagnetic waves move.
When incorporated with a low-power temperature sensor to transform the chip into a real-time temperature probe, the device possesses the ability to monitor body temperature in addition to small variations in temperature linked to the therapeutic use of ultrasound. In the study, the implant's proof-of-concept was carried out on live mice, in which it employed ultrasound neurostimulation. This involved implanting up to seven mice at once with intramuscular injection via syringe.
"This should be revolutionary for developing wireless, miniaturized implantable medical devices that can sense different things, be used in clinical applications, and eventually approved for human use," added Shepard. In, it's not difficult to see the immediate benefits of mass injections of benign devices capable of monitoring your temperature. One day, something like this could be an early warning system to officials of a brewing pandemic.