StimDust: A 6.5mm3, wireless ultrasonic peripheral nerve stimulator with 82% peak chip efficiency

We present a 6.5mm³, 10mg, wireless peripheral nerve stimulator. The stimulator is powered and controlled through ultrasound from an external transducer and utilizes a single 750×750×750μm³ piezocrystal for downlink communication, powering, and readout, reducing implant volume and mass. An IC with 0.06mm² active circuit area, designed in TSMC 65nm LPCMOS process, converts harvested ultrasound to stimulation charge with a peak efficiency of 82%. A custom wireless protocol that does not require a clock or memory circuits reduces on-chip power to 4μW when not stimulating. The encapsulated stimulator was cuffed to the sciatic nerve of an anesthetized rodent and demonstrated full-scale nerve activation in vivo. We achieve a highly efficient and temporally precise wireless peripheral nerve stimulator that is the smallest and lightest to our knowledge.