The big movie: The goal is to inject chips into the human body using a hypodermic needle and communicate with it using ultrasound. At present, the prototype is able to measure out body temperature, although future revisions could monitor metrics like blood pressure, respiration and glucose.

Researchers at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Engineering have adult the world's smallest single-chip organisation that is a complete functioning electronic circuit.

The implantable scrap, fabricated by TSMC, is as small as a dust mite and tin can only exist viewed under a microscope. Information technology consumes a total book of less than 0.1 cubic millimeters and rather than using traditional RF communications links, the team is relying on ultrasound to ability and communicate with it wirelessly.

As EurekaAlert highlights, traditional implanted electronics up to this bespeak have been highly inefficient in terms of volume, often requiring multiple chips, packaging, wires and external transducers. Many too apply batteries for free energy storage.

Ken Shepard, the study's leader, said they wanted to see how far they could push the limits on how small-scale a functioning fleck they could make. "This is a new idea of 'chip as system'--this is a chip that lonely, with null else, is a consummate performance electronic system," Shepard added.

Image credit: Billion photos, Chen Shi Columbia Engineering