A Sub-mm3 Ultrasonic Free-Floating Implant for Multi-Mote Neural Recording

Mohammad Meraj Ghanbari, David K. Piech, Konlin Shen, Sina Faraji Alamouti, Cem Yalcin, Benjamin C. Johnson, Jose M. Carmena, Michel M. Maharbiz, Rikky Muller

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

A 0.8-mm3-wireless, ultrasonically powered, free-floating neural recording implant is presented. The device is comprised only of a 0.25-mm2 recording integrated circuit (IC) and a single piezoceramic resonator that are used for both power harvesting and data transmission. Uplink data transmission is performed by the analog amplitude modulation of the ultrasound echo. Using a 1.78-MHz main carrier, >35 kb/s/mote equivalent uplink data rate is achieved. A technique to linearize the echo amplitude modulation is introduced, resulting in < 1.2% static nonlinearity of the received signal over a ±10-mV input range. The IC dissipates 37.7 μW, while the neural recording front end consumes 4 μW and achieves a noise floor of 5.3 μ Vrms in a 5-kHz bandwidth. This work improves the sub-mm recording mote depth by >2.5 ×, resulting in the highest measured depth/volume ratio by ∼ 3×. Orthogonal subcarrier modulation enables simultaneous operation of multiple implants, using a single-element ultrasound external transducer. Dual-mote simultaneous power-up and data transmission are demonstrated at a rate of 7 kS/s at the depth of 50 mm.

Original languageAmerican English
Article number8848490
Pages (from-to)3017-3030
Number of pages14
JournalIEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
Volume54
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2019

Keywords

  • Echo modulation
  • energy harvesting
  • implantable biomedical devices
  • linearization
  • neural recording
  • nonlinear acoustics
  • piezoelectric
  • ultrasound

EGS Disciplines

  • Electrical and Computer Engineering

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