Thermally Managed, Injectable Optoelectronic Probe with Heat Dissipation Guide for Photodynamic Therapy

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Germany), 2023-08, Vol.19 (35), p.e2300753-n/a
• Main Authors: Lee, Ju Seung, Choi, Jiwoong, Park, Gha Yeon, Kang, Seung Ji, Yang, Jae‐hun, Lee, Youngkyu, Choi, Myunghwan, Kim, Kwangmeyung, Kim, Tae‐il
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Boron nitride; boron nitride (BN); Brain damage; Dissipation; Electronic devices; heat dissipation; injectable bioelectronics; Light emitting diodes; microscale light emitting diodes (µLEDs); Nanomaterials; Nanotechnology; Optoelectronics; Photodynamic therapy; photodynamic therapy (PDT); Service life assessment; Thermal conductivity
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202300753

The development of fabrication technologies and appearance of new materials has resulted in dramatic increase in the performance of electronic devices, while the overall size has decreased. Recent electronic devices made of micro/nano‐size components show high efficiency and outstanding performance with compact size, but these devices have revealed several fatal problems. In particular, the isolated heat that is generated by numerous components concentrated in a limited small area at high density, such as bio‐integrated devices, is an issue that needs to be urgently addressed, because it is closely related to the performance and lifetime of electronic devices. To solve these problems, the microscale light emitting diode (µLED)‐based neural probe is introduced on an injectable heat dissipation guide. The heat dissipation guide is made of boron nitride (BN) nanomaterials with high thermal conductivity. The heat management noticeably improves the optical output performance of the µLEDs, in which BN effectively dissipates heat, and allows enhanced lighting from the LEDs to be transmitted through brain tissue without thermal damage. Moreover, it shows remarkable improvement in the therapeutic effect of photodynamic therapy of mouse cancer cells. Isolated heat generated from microsize electronics can escape along with the boron nitride (9BN) heat dissipation layer in an injectable optoelectronic probe, which is densely integrated in a limited area. The light from heat‐managed devices can be effectively transmitted through the body without thermal damage of cell or degradation of the emitting performance of the optoelectronics.