CPS: Medium: Deep Integration of Thin Flexible Autonomous Microsystems for Vision Correction

这项工作的目标是实现自主的网络物理，微系统，使用灵活的电子隐形眼镜自动矫正视力模糊。该视力矫正系统将薄的可变焦度透镜与物距微传感器以及计算和控制软件集成在一起，以在患有老花眼的个体中连续地产生清晰聚焦的图像。老花眼，或失去眼睛的能力，改变焦点，是一种不可避免的和普遍的年龄相关的条件，影响老年人，造成模糊的图像和视力障碍。2018年，全球估计有20亿人患有老花眼。所提出的视力矫正微系统在从其周围环境收集能量的同时自主操作，以便提供一整天的连续视力矫正。这种微系统的实现推进了我们在医疗应用中的自主微系统工程的科学知识，最终改善了数十亿老年人的日常生活和福祉，同时降低了治疗成本。用于视力矫正的自主微系统的实现需要深度集成最先进的非均匀微技术，包括可变功率液晶透镜，薄如纸的嵌入式微处理器和具有数千万个晶体管的通信电路，薄如纸的微传感器，用于检测光水平、用户方向和焦距，以及具有电源管理电路的薄光伏电池，所有这些都集成到符合人眼表面的单个柔性封装上。该系统必须能够在资源有限的生物环境中以最佳方式完全自主地供电和管理其操作。具有这些特征的系统的进步广泛适用于许多未来的网络物理系统（CPS），用于医疗和健康监测应用。这个雄心勃勃的项目将非均匀微技术集成的前沿推向了一个人们反复梦想但从未实现的水平，以产生一个高度集成的CPS，使数十亿人受益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this work is the realization of autonomous cyber-physical, microsystems for automated correction of blurred vision using flexible electronic contact lenses. The vision correction system integrates thin variable power lenses with object distance microsensors and computation and control software to continuously produce sharply-focused images in individuals suffering from presbyopia. Presbyopia, or loss of the eye's ability to change focus, is an inevitable and universal age-related condition that affects aging adults, causing blurred images and visual impairment. In 2018, two billion people worldwide were estimated to suffer from presbyopia. The proposed vision correction microsystem operates autonomously while collecting energy from its surrounding environment in order to provide continuous vision correction for an entire day. Realization of such microsystems advances our scientific knowledge of autonomous microsystem engineering for medical applications, ultimately improving the daily lives and well-being of billions of aging adults while reducing the cost of treatment.The implementation of autonomous microsystems for vision correction requires deep integration of ultrathin state-of-the-art inhomogeneous microtechnologies including variable power liquid-crystal lenses, paper-thin embedded microprocessors and communications circuits with tens of millions of transistors, paper-thin microsensors to detect light level, user orientation and focal distance, and thin photovoltaic cells with power management circuits, all integrated onto a single flexible package that conforms to the surface of the human eye. The system must be able to scavenge power and manage its operation completely autonomously, in the best possible way, in a resource-limited biological environment. Advancements in systems with these characteristics are widely applicable to many future cyber physical systems (CPS) for medical and health monitoring applications. This extremely ambitious project pushes the frontiers of inhomogeneous microtechnology integration to a level that has been repeatedly dreamed of, but never realized before, to produce a highly integrated CPS that can benefit billions of people.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.