VIDEO: Elastic electronics offer less invasive, more convenient medical monitoring and treatment

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University are developing elastic electronics -- technology which could revolutionize medical monitoring and treatment. This new circuitry is small, flexible and able monitor and deliver electrical impulses into living tissue. Elastic electronics are made of tiny, wavy silicon structures containing circuits that are thinner than a human hair, allowing them to bend and stretch with the body. "As the skin moves and deforms, the circuit can follow those deformations in a completely noninvasive way," says John Rogers of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He and his collaborators hope elastic electronics will open a door to a whole range of what he calls "bio-integrated" medical devices.