A Chopper-Stabilized, Current Feedback, Neural Recording Amplifier.

Abstract

Advanced neural prosthetics requires high density neural recording and stimulation electrodes interfacing with the tissue. For an implantable device, area, power consumption, and noise performance are the key design metrics. Due to the low-frequency nature of the recorded signals, chopping technique is inevitable to satisfy the noise requirement while maintaining a small area and low power consumption. However, chopping leads to a significant drop in input impedance, which leads to potential attenuation of neural signals recorded from high impedance miniature electrodes, and an unacceptable large input current drawn from the tissue. This work presents a chopper stabilized, current feedback amplifier (CFA) with input impedance boosted to 3.0 GΩ. The amplifier has an adjustable voltage gain of 40-60 dB, and an adjustable high-pass cut-off frequency of 0.5 - 5 Hz, with a power consumption of 2.6 μW and noise efficiency factor (NEF) of 3.2.