High Performance Flexible Protocol for Backscattered-Based Neural Implants

This work presents a custom high-performance protocol for bi-directional communication with neural implants, that will eventually enable closed-loop operation. This protocol presents a flexible configuration to communicate to neural implants with different characteristics. It can support different uplink data rates, a variable number of neural channels from 2 to 16, two types of digital signal modulation (Amplitude Shift-Keying, ASK, and Binary Shift-Keying, PSK), and different RF operation frequencies (915MHz being the default). The proposed protocol is implemented in C++ (preferred to Python because it enables fast signal processing algorithms), using GNU-Radio toolkit with custom communication blocks.