Title
Near-infrared tandem organic photodiodes for future application in artificial retinal implants
Author
Simone, G.
di carlo Rasi, D.
de Vries, X.
Heintges, G.H.L.
Meskers, S.C.J.
Janssen, R.A.J.
Gelinck, G.H.
Publication year
2018
Abstract
Photovoltaic retinal prostheses show great potential to restore sight in patients suffering from degenerative eye diseases by electrical stimulation of the surviving neurons in the retinal network. Herein, organic photodiodes (OPDs) sensitive to near-infrared (NIR) light are evaluated as photovoltaic pixels for future application in retinal prostheses. Single-junction and tandem OPDs are compared. In the latter, two nominally identical single-junction cells are processed on top of each other, effectively doubling the open-circuit voltage (VOC). Both single-junction and tandem OPD micropixels can deliver the required charge to stimulate neurons under pulsed NIR light at physiologically safe intensities when connected to stimulating microelectrodes in a physiological saline solution. However, only tandem OPD pixels can cover the entire charge per pulse neural stimulation window due to their higher VOC (≈1.4 V). This demonstrates the viability of high-resolution retinal prostheses based on flexible OPD arrays.
Subject
Bulk heterojunctions
Neural stimulation
Organic photovoltaics
Retinas
Tandem cells
Electrophysiology
Heterojunctions
Microelectrodes
Open circuit voltage
Ophthalmology
Photodiodes
Pixels
Prosthetics
Sodium chloride
Infrared devices
Electrodes
Infrared Rays
Neurons
Visual Prosthesis
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:98056835-b6cb-439e-9ad7-049da61d18c1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201804678
TNO identifier
955038
Publisher
Wiley-VCH Verlag
ISSN
0935-9648
Source
Advanced Materials, 30 (30)
Document type
article