A Fully Integrated Sensor-Brain–Machine Interface System for Restoring Somatosensation

Sensory feedback is critical to the performance of neural prostheses that restore movement control after neurological injury. Recent advances in direct neural control of paralyzed arms present new requirements for miniaturized, low-power sensor systems. To address this challenge, we developed a fully-integrated wireless sensor-brain-machine interface (SBMI) system for communicating key somatosensory signals, fingertip forces and limb joint angles, to the brain. The system consists of a tactile force sensor, an electrogoniometer, and a neural interface. The tactile force sensor features a novel optical waveguide on CMOS design for sensing. The electrogoniometer integrates an ultra low-power digital signal processor (DSP) for real-time joint angle measurement. The neural interface enables bidirectional neural stimulation and recording. Innovative designs of sensors and sensing interfaces, analog-to-digital converters (ADC) and ultra wide-band (UWB) wireless transceivers have been developed. The prototypes have been fabricated in 180nm standard CMOS technology and tested on the bench and in vivo. The developed system provides a novel solution for providing somatosensory feedback to next-generation neural prostheses.