Design and Prototyping a Smart Deep Brain Stimulator: An Autonomous Neuro-Sensing and Stimulating Electrode System

This article presents the design and prototyping of an innovative smart deep brain stimulator (SDBS) that consists of brain-implantable smart electrodes and a wireless-connected external controller. SDBS electrodes operate as completely autonomous electronic implants that are capable of sensing and recording neural activities in real time, performing local processing, and generating arbitrary waveforms for neuro-stimulation. A bidirectional, secure, fully passive wireless communication backbone was designed and integrated into this smart electrode to maintain contact between the electrodes and the controller. The standard EPC-Global protocol has been modified and adopted as the communication protocol in this design. The proposed SDBS was demonstrated and tested through a hardware prototypes.