We have been living in the ‘Silicon Age’ since the late 1940s when the first point contact transistor was demonstrated.

Semiconductors more broadly have enabled our high tech modern lifestyles from computing to the internet to communications, transport, healthcare, etc. They are everywhere and will be the critical technological enablers of the Net Zero Revolution.

Semiconductors of course are quantum mechanical entities – they operate through exquisite control of the electron and hole currents and potentials – but a new question has emerged in the past decade: ‘how do we interface semiconductor-based electronics with biology’ which is an intrinsically classical world dominated by the flow of ions?

This is a question that I will address in my seminar – I will come at it from two angles and motivations:

i) the creation of bioelectronic interfaces to deliver what is now becoming known as electroceuticals; and

ii) the possibility of creating an advanced new optoelectronic technology base whereby ionic-and-electronic conductors can combine to create novel functionality such as true-colour imaging systems for machine vision. This is the frontier of so-called heterogenous integration.