Laser-based engineering strategies for biomedical and healthcare devices

Abstract

Biomedical and healthcare devices are evolving with the advancement of materials science and manufacturing technologies. These advances have led to the development of soft, conformable electronics capable of interfacing with dynamic biological tissues and reliably monitoring physical, electrical, and biochemical signals during continuous body motion for real-time health monitoring. Among various manufacturing technologies to fabricate bioelectronic devices, laser fabrication has emerged as a powerful manufacturing system because of its wide usability from rapid prototyping to unprecedented spatial patterning capabilities. Thus, understanding the basic principles of laser fabrication and state-of-the-art technology is important to further develop bioelectronic devices. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of laser-based functional bioelectronics for medical and healthcare devices. First, we discuss the fundamentals of laser-material interaction for material fabrication and modulation. Various examples of laser processing techniques also follow, covering topics ranging from simple structuring to phase modulation. Then, we summarize several requirements for bioelectronic devices to be applied to human body. We introduce recent advances in functional bioelectronics applications based on laser processing technology, including biophysical sensors, biochemical sensors, and energy devices. Finally, we outline challenges and future perspectives for advanced bioelectronic devices, providing insight into the directions in which these technologies are expected to evolve.