Abstract
This article presents a versatile neurostimulation platform featuring a fully implantable multi-channel neural stimulator for chronic experimental studies with freely moving large animal models involving peripheral nerves. The implant is hermetically sealed in a ceramic enclosure and encapsulated in medical grade silicone rubber, and then underwent active tests at accelerated aging conditions at 100°C for 15 consecutive days. The stimulator microelectronics are implemented in a 0.6-μm CMOS technology, with a crosstalk reduction scheme to minimize cross-channel interference, and high-speed power and data telemetry for battery-less operation. A wearable transmitter equipped with a Bluetooth Low Energy radio link, and a custom graphical user interface provide real-time, remotely controlled stimulation. Three parallel stimulators provide independent stimulation on three channels, where each stimulator supports six stimulating sites and two return sites through multiplexing, hence the implant can facilitate stimulation at up to 36 different electrode pairs. The design of the electronics, method of hermetic packaging and electrical performance as well as in vitro testing with electrodes in saline are presented.
Highlights
Direct interaction with neural pathways through active implantable devices has become an increasingly effective therapeutic approach for treating neurological disorders and organ defects, or replacing lost body function
The test was considered passed if the leak rate was lower than 5 × 10−8 atm cc/sec helium. After passing this fine leak test, the hybrid was placed in gross leak tank at 125◦C for 1 min, and the package was considered to be sufficiently hermetic if no bubbles were observed
The goal of this research was to develop a fully implantable device capable of multisite neural stimulation suitable for chronic studies in free moving animals, where the stimulation can be precisely delivered to the target sites and can be modified wirelessly in real-time from a remote-control host
Summary
Direct interaction with neural pathways through active implantable devices has become an increasingly effective therapeutic approach for treating neurological disorders and organ defects, or replacing lost body function. A variety of implantable stimulator designs has been reported in the literature in the past two decades They can be divided into three major categories: 1) Implants adapted from commercially available devices (Capogrosso et al, 2016; Boutros et al, 2019): these implants have proven reliability, they are often limited by their inflexibility, coarse programmability, and low channel count; 2) Implants without hermetic packaging (Xu et al, 2015; Lee et al, 2018; Williams et al, 2020): In these implants the electronics are encapsulated in silicone rubber or epoxy. Others are simple electronic circuits sealed in miniaturized glass packages (Loeb et al, 2001; Sivaji et al, 2019), where the channel count and programmability are limited
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