Electronic Chip-Mimetic Medical Implants for Controllable Sonothermal Treatments

The sterility and controllable biological functionalities of implantable medical devices determine their lifespan, safety, and therapeutic efficacy. Inspired by the thermal effect of working electronic chips, which consist of various heterostructures, we have developed an electronic chip-mimetic sonothermal platform through constructing metal-semiconductor heterogeneous interface. Through magnetron sputtering on the surface of the sandblasted/acid-etched pretreated titanium (pTi), we find that semiconductor coatings (TiO₂, Si, ZnO, and Te) endow pTi with different in situ sonothermal effects (ΔT > 18°C, 15 min) under ultrasound (US) irradiation, whereas conductor coatings do not. The sonothermal mechanism of pTi-semiconductor is associated with US-activated electron and phonon transport within the heterogeneous interface of implants, which is determined by the electrical and phonon characteristics of pTi-semiconductor, including their matching degree, thermal conductivity, defected structure, and type of semiconductor. Clinical titanium screws were introduced with defected structure in oxygen layer (TiO_2-x) and bone-derived whitlockite, which shows great sonothermal/sonodynamic effects for efficient elimination of biofilm infection and improved osseointegration. In addition, the prepared NiTi-TiO_2-x guidewire enables rapid thrombolysis (30 min) in the deep vein thrombosis of beagles after 10 min of sonothermal/urokinase treatment. The electronic chip-mimetic sonothermal platform provides a promising and widespread clinical application prospect.