Progress toward a liquid crystal contact lens display

Abstract

A contact lens embeddable display using electro-optic modulation was designed and fabricated. Using a guest–host liquid crystal configuration, a spherically deformed liquid crystal cell was fabricated comprising poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT : PSS) as a conductive layer and obliquely evaporated SiO2 as an alignment layer. An additional SiO2 buffer layer was evaporated on top of the PEDOT : PSS to overcome compatibility problems with the patterning of the photolithographically defined spacers. Although the contrast is modest, a patterned modulation could clearly be observed, indicating that our approach and fabrication process could eventually lead to a fully pixelated contact lens display

Stretchable Electronic Platform for Soft and Smart Contact Lens Applications

“…The center region of the platform is reserved for the integration of an optical cell, foreseen for vision correction applications (e.g., to treat aniridia, presbyopia) . The deformation from a 2D disk to a 3D spherical shape, including electronics, was performed by means of thermoforming (i.e., heating and shaping in a metallic mold) (Figure b).…”

“…The potential applications include the development of smart tattoos in contact with the skin, smart patches to monitor the status of skin wounds and smart contact lenses . The latter is foreseen to be applied in different fields ranging from biomedical diagnosis, signaling, and entertainment to vision correction (i.e., presbyopia), among others. However, challenges lie ahead mostly regarding to their integration into fully autonomous systems (i.e., power and decision independent).…”

70‐4: Late‐News Paper: Electronic Contact Lens for Senses beyond Sight

“…A range of new technologies is currently undergoing development. Integration of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) [9], [10] leads to the possibility of active vision correction or enhancement, with electronic focusing and other techniques. SCLs with a single pixel LED indicator have also been reported [7], [6].…”

Wearable Biofuel Cells: A Review

“…Recent interest in developing wearable non‐invasive sensors for continuous health monitoring have led to the demonstration of various occular‐based devices, such as, glucose sensors 57–59, lactate sensor 60, intraocular pressure monitor 61–63, presbyopia correction 64, and electronic displays 8, 65. Although, external power sources, for example, radio frequency‐based wireless powering 62, 65 has been explored, the need to have such external source close to the eye makes such systems less attractive.…”

“…Recent interest in developing wearable non‐invasive sensors for continuous health monitoring have led to the demonstration of various occular‐based devices, such as, glucose sensors 57–59, lactate sensor 60, intraocular pressure monitor 61–63, presbyopia correction 64, and electronic displays 8, 65. Although, external power sources, for example, radio frequency‐based wireless powering 62, 65 has been explored, the need to have such external source close to the eye makes such systems less attractive. Tears contain several metabolites that could be scavenged by biofuel cells to generate energy sufficient to power contact lens‐based devices 66, 67 As opposed to wireless power sources, biofuel cells do not require any external component to generate electricity and can thus be incorporated within the contact lens‐based devices for in‐situ power harvesting.…”