Walsh-Hadamard-Based Orthogonal Sampling Technique for Parallel Neural Recording Systems

Abstract

Walsh-Hadamard based orthogonal sampling of signals is studied in this paper, and an application of this technique is presented. Using orthogonal sampling, a single analog-to-digital converter (ADC) only is sufficient to perform parallel (simultaneous) recording from the sensors. Furthermore, employing Walsh functions as modulation signals, the required bandwidth of the ADC in the proposed system is equal to the bandwidth of a time-multiplexed ADC in a system with identical number of recording channels. Therefore, the bandwidth of the ADC in the proposed system is effectively employed and shared among all the channels. The efficient usage of the ADC bandwidth leads to saving power at the ADC stage and reducing the data-rate of the output signal compared to state-of-the-art recording systems based on frequency-division multiplexing. This paper presents the orthogonal sampling technique for neural recording in multi-channel recording systems which is implemented with four recording channels using a $0.18~\mu \text{m}$ technology which results in a power consumption of $1.26~\mu \text{W}$ /channel at a 0.8 V supply.