Artificial retina implantation provides an effective
and feasible
attempt for vision recovery in addition to retinal transplantation.
The most advanced artificial retinas ever developed based on silicon
technology are rigid and thus less compatible with the biosystem.
Here we demonstrate flexible photoresponsive ring oscillators (PROs)
based on the 2D semiconductor MoS2 for artificial retinas.
Under natural light illuminations, arrayed PROs on flexible substrates
serving as vision pixels can efficiently output light-intensity-dependent
electrical pulses that are processable and transmittable in the human
visual nerve system. Such PROs can work under low supply voltages
below 1 V with a record-low power consumption, e.g. only 12.4 nW at
a light intensity of 10 mW/cm2, decreased by ∼500
times compared with that of the state-of-the-art silicon devices.
Such flexible artificial retinas with a simple device structure, high
light-to-signal conversion efficiency, ultralow power consumption,
and high tunability provide an alternative prosthesis for further
clinical trials.