Edible Electronics: Prospects for Future Biosensing Technologies

The remarkable technological advancements of our era, driven by significant enhancements in traditional semiconductor materials, have rendered electronic devices essential components of our daily lives. Despite the increasing energy efficiency of these devices during their operational phase, there exists a notable disparity between the energy consumed during their manufacturing process and their lifetime energy consumption. This imbalance has become inefficient and warrants attention. Furthermore, the proliferation of electronic waste and the rapid depletion of critical raw materials underscore the urgent need for environmentally friendly and sustainable alternatives. This need is particularly pressing for the multitude of short-lived smart objects and mobile devices envisioned to support the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. The emerging field of Green Electronics seeks to address these challenges by developing sustainable technological solutions for the IoT ecosystem, aligning with circular economy principles. This involves leveraging organic materials derived from renewable natural resources, processed using environmentally friendly methods, and integrated with eco-friendly micro- and nanofabrication processes. Within the realm of Green Electronics, we focus on envisioned strategies and recent advances toward the development of Edible Electronics. These are devices, sensors, and biosensors designed to be safely ingested without supervision or retrieval, and subsequently degrade within the body after fulfilling their intended function. Notable applications of Edible Electronics are envisaged in the healthcare sector, including ingestible smart pills for non-invasive monitoring of the gastrointestinal tract, compliance monitoring devices for pharmaceutical treatments, and devices for prolonged and controlled drug release. Additionally, significant applications in the food industry are anticipated, offering safe and direct tagging of food products and real-time quality assessment tools.