Photovoltaic retinal prostheses show great potential to restore sight in patients suffering from degenerative eye diseases by electrical stimulation of the surviving neurons in the retinal network. Herein, organic photodiodes (OPDs) sensitive to near‐infrared (NIR) light are evaluated as photovoltaic pixels for future application in retinal prostheses. Single‐junction and tandem OPDs are compared. In the latter, two nominally identical single‐junction cells are processed on top of each other, effectively doubling the open‐circuit voltage (V _OC). Both single‐junction and tandem OPD micropixels can deliver the required charge to stimulate neurons under pulsed NIR light at physiologically safe intensities when connected to stimulating microelectrodes in a physiological saline solution. However, only tandem OPD pixels can cover the entire charge per pulse neural stimulation window due to their higher V _OC (≈1.4 V). This demonstrates the viability of high‐resolution retinal prostheses based on flexible OPD arrays.

中文翻译：

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近红外串联有机光电二极管未来在人工视网膜植入物中的应用

光伏视网膜假体显示出巨大潜力，可通过电刺激视网膜网络中存活的神经元来恢复患有退行性眼病的患者的视力。在本文中，对近红外（NIR）光敏感的有机光电二极管（OPD）被评估为光伏像素，以备将来在视网膜假体中应用。比较了单结和串联OPD。在后者中，两个名义上相同的单结电池彼此叠加处理，有效地使开路电压（V _OC）加倍）。当连接到生理盐溶液中的刺激微电极时，单结和串联OPD微像素都可以提供所需的电荷，以在生理安全强度下在脉冲NIR光下刺激神经元。但是，由于串联OPD像素具有较高的V _OC（≈1.4V），因此每个脉冲神经刺激窗口只能覆盖整个电荷。这证明了基于柔性OPD阵列的高分辨率视网膜假体的可行性。