What sparked the invention of the microchip?
Dr. Robert Langer, Kenneth J. Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at MIT, conceived of the microchip idea while watching a documentary on the mass production of microchips. He envisioned numerous applications for a microchip that could controllably release chemicals or drugs. He thought, for example, that it may be possible to create a microchip that would be placed in televisions that could release scents corresponding to the picture shown on the screen. What was an exciting moment in the research? Witnessing the first demonstration of the release of a compound from the microchip was exciting. However, there were not many sudden leaps. Instead, progress over the years has been steady. We encountered numerous technical challenges along the way such as material selection, process design, and reservoir filling issues, but we were able to develop solutions for each of these. How does the microchip work? The microchip contains a large number of reservoirs, each co
