Summary
Researchers in the UCLA Department of Bioengineering have developed a novel, fully integrated circuit architecture to implement a high-voltage, high-channel-count stimulator for space-restricted medical implants such as epiretinal protheses and cochlear implants.
Background
Retinal implants can mitigate certain effects of photoreceptor loss, yet the efficacy of such implants has been limited by their underlying circuit architecture. Current circuits typically occupy a large area, require external diodes for power telemetry, and do not produce an adequate output compliance voltage for enhanced light perception.Furthermore, such circuits often have a low channel count and may not include an integrated power receiver circuit.There does not currently exist a high-channel stimulator with fully integrated power and data telemetry.
Innovation
Researchers in the UCLA Department of Bioengineering have developed a novel, fully integrated circuit architecture to implement a high-voltage, high-channel-count stimulator for medical implants. The circuit has a small chip size (37.6 square mm) and requires only five off-chip components.Furthermore, the stimulation array has ± 10 compliance voltage and can be used to construct a prosthetic device with 4096 channels.The stimulator is also capable of delivering 100 mW power and transferring 2 Mbps data.The advantages of the underlying circuit architecture make the stimulator particularly well-suited for epiretinal prosthetics as well as other space-restricted medical implants, including cochlear implants.
Applications
▶ Epiretinal protheses
▶ Cochlear implants
▶ Other space-restricted medical implants
Advantages
▶ Small ship size (37.6 square mm)
▶ Requires only five off-chip components
▶ Delivers 100 mW power and transfers Mbps data
▶ Has ± 10 compliance voltage
▶ Can be used to construct a prosthetic device with 4096 channels
State Of Development
A working prototype has been developed.