A 1.66Gb/s and 5.8pJ/b Transcutaneous IR-UWB Telemetry System with Hybrid Impulse Modulation for Intracortical Brain-Computer Interfaces

Intra-cortical extracellular neural sensing is being rapidly and widely applied in several clinical research and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), as the number of sensing channels continues to double every 6 years. By distributing multiple high-density extracellular micro-electrode arrays (MEAs) in vivo across the brain, each with 1000's of sensing channels, neuroscientists have begun to map the correlation of neuronal activity across different brain regions, with single-neuron precision [1]. Since each neural sensing channel typically samples at 20 to 50kS/s with a > 10b ADC, multiple MEAs demand a data transfer rate up to Gb/s [2]. However, these BCIs are severely hindered in many clinical uses due to the lack of a high-data-rate and miniature-wireless-telemetry solution that can be implanted below the scalp, i.e., transcutaneously (Fig. 24.2.1). The area of the wireless telemetry module should be miniaturized to ~3cm
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due to neurosurgical implantation constraints. A transmission range up to 10cm is highly desirable, in order to improve the reliability of the wireless link against e.g., antenna misalignment, etc. Finally, the power consumption of the wireless telemetry should be limited to ~10mW to minimize thermal flux from the module's surface area, avoiding excessive tissue heating. Most of the conventional transcutaneous wireless telemetry systems adopt inductive coupling, but the data-rate is limited to a few Mb/s. A near-infrared (NIR) optical transcutaneous TX using a vertical-cavity-surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) [2] demonstrated a data-rate up to 300Mb/s but suffers from a limited transmission range (4mm) and requires a sub-mm precise alignment between the implant TX and a wearable RX. Impulse-radio UWB (IR-UWB) is promising for the targeted requirements [3]–[5].