Continuous-time acquisition of biosignals using a charge-based ADC topology

This paper investigates continuous-time (CT) signal acquisition as an activity-dependent and nonuniform sampling alternative to conventional fixed-rate digitisation. We demonstrate the applicability to biosignal representation by quantifying the achievable bandwidth saving by nonuniform quantisation to commonly recorded biological signal fragments allowing a compression ratio of ≈5 and 26 when applied to electrocardiogram and extracellular action potential signals, respectively. We describe several desirable properties of CT sampling, including bandwidth reduction, elimination/reduction of quantisation error, and describe its impact on aliasing. This is followed by demonstration of a resource-efficient hardware implementation. We propose a novel circuit topology for a charge-based CT analogue-to-digital converter that has been optimized for the acquisition of neural signals. This has been implemented in a commercially available 0.35 μm CMOS technology occupying a compact footprint of 0.12 mm 2 . Silicon verified measurements demonstrate an 8-bit resolution and a 4 kHz bandwidth with static power consumption of 3.75 μW from a 1.5 V supply. The dynamic power dissipation is completely activity-dependent, requiring 1.39 pJ energy per conversion

Live demonstration: a public engagement platform for invasive neural interfaces

Neural interfaces, and more specifically ones ofthe invasive/implantable variety, today are a topic of muchcontroversy, often making the general public uncomfortable andintimidated. We have thus devised a bespoke interactive demoto help people understand brain implants and their need inthe age of wearable devices, with the secondary objective ofintroducing the wireless cortical neural probe that we, at NGNI(Next Generation Neural Interfaces) lab, are developing

EM-lens enhanced power transfer and multi-node data transmission for implantable medical devices

This paper presents a robust EM-lens-enhancedwireless power transmission system and a novel multiple-nodedata communication method for distributed implantable medicaldevices. The proposed techniques can solve the common issuescaused by multiple implanted devices, such as low power transferefficiency through biological tissues, uneven delivered powerfor distributed devices and interference between simultaneouswireless power and data transmission. A prototype system hasbeen manufactured with discrete components on FR4 substrateas a proof of concept. The EM-Lens-enhanced inductive linkscan expand the power coverage of transmitting (Tx) coil from9 mm×5 mm to 14 mm×13 mm, and double the recovered DCvoltage from 1.8 V to 3.2 V at 12.5 mm distance. Data commu-nication is achieved by novel low-power back-scattering CDMAscheme. This permits transmission of data from several nodesall operating with the same carrier frequency simultaneouslyreflecting the power carriers to the primary side. In this paper,we demonstrate simultaneous communication between two nodesat 125 kbps with 1.05 mW power consumption

A clockless method of flicker noise suppression in continuous-time acquisition of biosignals

This paper presents a novel chopping method allow- ing suppression of 1/f flicker noise in continuous-time acquisition systems without the need for a fixed-frequency clock, stochasti- cally deriving the chopping signal from the input and hence achieving completely signal-dependent power consumption. The method is analysed, its basis of operation explained and a proof- of-concept implementation presented alongside simulated results demonstrating an increase in achieved SNR of more than 8 dB during acquisition of ECG, EAP and EEG signals

A charge-based ultra-low power continuous-time ADC for data driven neural spike processing

The paper presents a novel topology of a continuous-time analogue-to-digital converter (CT-ADC) featuring ultra-low static power consumption, activity-dependent dynamic consumption, and a compact footprint. This is achieved by utilising a novel charge-packet based threshold generation method, that alleviates the requirement for a conventional feedback DAC. The circuit has a static power consumption of 3.75uW, with dynamic energy of 1.39pJ/conversion level. This type of converter is thus particularly well-suited for biosignals that are generally sparse in nature. The circuit has been optimised for neural spike recording by capturing a 3kHz bandwidth with 8-bit resolution. For a typical extracellular neural recording the average power consumption is in the order of ~4uW. The circuit has been implemented in a commercially available 0.35um CMOS technology with core occupying a footprint of 0.12 sq.m

Autonomous SoC for neural local field potential recording in mm-scale wireless implants

Next generation brain machine interfaces fundamentally need to improve the information transfer rate and chronic consistency when observing neural activity over a long period of time. Towards this aim, this paper presents a novel System-on-Chip (SoC) for a mm-scale wireless neural recording node that can be implanted in a distributed fashion. The proposed self-regulating architecture allows each implant to operate autonomously and adaptively load the electromagnetic field to extract a precise amount of power for full-system operation. This can allow for a large number of recording sites across multiple implants extending through cortical regions without increased control overhead in the external head-stage. By observing local field potentials (LFPs) only, chronic stability is improved and good coverage is achieved whilst reducing the spatial density of recording sites. The system features a ΔΣ based instrumentation circuit that digitises high fidelity signal features at the sensor interface thereby minimising analogue resource requirements while maintaining exceptional noise efficiency. This has been implemented in a 0.35 μm CMOS technology allowing for wafer-scale post-processing for integration of electrodes, RF coil, electronics and packaging within a 3D structure. The presented configuration will record LFPs from 8 electrodes with a 825 Hz bandwidth and an input referred noise figure of 1.77μVrms. The resulting electronics has a core area of 2.1 mm2 and a power budget of 92 μ

Compact standalone platform for neural recording with real-time spike sorting and data logging

Objective. Longitudinal observation of single unit neural activity from large numbers of cortical neurons in awake and mobile animals is often a vital step in studying neural network behaviour and towards the prospect of building effective Brain Machine Interfaces (BMIs). These recordings generate enormous amounts of data for transmission & storage, and typically require o ine processing to tease out the behaviour of individual neurons. Our aim was to create a compact system capable of: 1) reducing the data bandwidth by circa 2 to 3 orders of magnitude (greatly improving battery lifetime and enabling low power wireless transmission in future versions); 2) producing real-time, low-latency, spike sorted data; and 3) long term untethered operation. Approach. We have developed a headstage that operates in two phases. In the short training phase a computer is attached and classic spike sorting is performed to generate templates. In the second phase the system is untethered and performs template matching to create an event driven spike output that is logged to a micro-SD card. To enable validation the system is capable of logging the high bandwidth raw neural signal data as well as the spike sorted data. Main results. The system can successfully record 32 channels of raw neural signal data and/or spike sorted events for well over 24 hours at a time and is robust to power dropouts during battery changes as well as SD card replacement. A 24-hour initial recording in a nonhuman primate M1 showed consistent spike shapes with the expected changes in neural activity during awake behaviour and sleep cycles. Signi cance The presented platform allows neural activity to be unobtrusively monitored and processed in real-time in freely behaving untethered animals { revealing insights that are not attainable through scheduled recording sessions. This system achieves the lowest power per channel to date and provides a robust, low-latency, low-bandwidth and veri able output suitable for BMIs, closed loop neuromodulation, wireless transmission and long term data logging

Towards a distributed, chronically-implantable neural interface

We present a platform technology encompassing a family of innovations that together aim to tackle key challenges with existing implantable brain machine interfaces. The ENGINI (Empowering Next Generation Implantable Neural Interfaces) platform utilizes a 3-tier network (external processor, cranial transponder, intracortical probes) to inductively couple power to, and communicate data from, a distributed array of freely-floating mm-scale probes. Novel features integrated into each probe include: (1) an array of niobium microwires for observing local field potentials (LFPs) along the cortical column; (2) ultra-low power instrumentation for signal acquisition and data reduction; (3) an autonomous, self-calibrating wireless transceiver for receiving power and transmitting data; and (4) a hermetically-sealed micropackage suitable for chronic use. We are additionally engineering a surgical tool, to facilitate manual and robot-assisted insertion, within a streamlined neurosurgical workflow. Ongoing work is focused on system integration and preclinical testing