Wearable OLED Patch Helps Heal Wounds

By mounting flexible OLEDs, batteries and anti-superheating devices on a thin film, scientists have developed a wearable patch that can facilitate wound healing.

AsianScientist (Jun. 7, 2018) – A research group in South Korea has developed a wearable organic light emitting diode (OLED) patch that can be used to treat wounds. They published their findings in Advanced Materials Technologies.

There have been many cases in which light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been applied to electronic devices. However, LED devices are usually inflexible, have difficulty irradiating light uniformly and may produce localized heat, making them difficult to use in clinical settings where.

In the present study, a research group led by Professor KyungCheol Choi from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), in collaboration with colleagues at Seoul National University, has used OLEDs to develop a wearable photobiomodulation (PBM) patch for wound treatment.

The patch is a thin film that contains not only flexible OLEDs, but also batteries and anti-superheating devices. It has a thickness of less than one millimeter and weighs less than one gram. This lightweight and ultra-thin patch has a bending radius of 20 millimeters and can be used for more than 300 hours.

Additionally, the patches operate at a temperature below 42℃, thereby eliminating the risk of low-temperature burns. They also meet the safety regulations of the International Organization for Standardization at red wavelengths (600–700 nm).

The researchers showed that the wearable PBM patches stimulated cell proliferation as well as migration in vitro, and further demonstrated the patch to be a safe, noninvasive and nonsurgical method for wound healing that requires relatively low light power.

“The wearable PBM is effective and convenient, so people can simply purchase it at a pharmacy without having to visit a hospital,” said Dr. Jeon Yongmin of KAIST who is the first author of the study.

“If we can adjust the power and wavelength of the OLEDs, its application can be extended to skin care, cancer treatment, Alzheimer’s disease treatment and mental healthcare.”


The article can be found at: Jeon et al. (2018) Wearable Light Therapy: A Wearable Photobiomodulation Patch Using a Flexible Red‐Wavelength OLED and Its In Vitro Differential Cell Proliferation Effects.

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Source: Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology.
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