Micro-LEDs in biomedicine: from implantable optogenetics to intelligent theranostics

Abstract Micro-scale light-emitting diodes (Micro-LEDs) are evolving from display devices to powerful biomedical tools owing to their miniaturization, low power consumption, flexibility and multi-wavelength capability. This review summarizes advances in Micro-LED biomedicine (2024−2026). It introduces core enabling technologies and classifies applications into implantable systems, wearable platforms and brain−computer interfaces, covering optogenetics, cardiac/tumor therapy, epidermal healthcare, visual prostheses and all-optical neural interfaces. Key challenges including biocompatibility, heat dissipation and packaging are discussed. Prospects such as closed-loop intelligent systems, degradable devices and clinical translation are proposed. This review highlights Micro-LEDs’ great potential for next-generation precision medicine.