A miniature, implantable wireless neural stimulation system

In this thesis, I present the design of a wireless neural stimulation system. The system consists of an external transmitter, controllable through a computer interface, and a miniature, implantable wireless receiver and stimulator. The implant is tailored for use in zebra finches - small birds weighing just 12-15g - as part of ongoing research into the neural mechanisms of sequence generation and learning. The implant, assembled on a miniature printed circuit board, contains a receiver coil, battery, electrodes, and a custom integrated circuit for data demodulation and neural stimulation. The chip, fabricated in a standard 0.5[mu]m CMOS process, is capable of delivering biphasic current pulses to 4 addressable electrode sites at 16 selectable current levels ranging from 100[mu]A to mA. Additionally, the biphasic pulses may be inverted. The entire implant weighs less than 1.5g and occupies a footprint smaller than 1.5cm2. A miniaturized neural stimulator such as this one also has applications in neural prostheses for blindness, Parkinson's disease, and paralysis.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Arfin, Scott K. (Scott Kenneth)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Rahul Sarpeshkar.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37938

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37938