title: A Battery-Less, Implantable Neuro-Electronic Interface for Studying the Mechanisms of Deep Brain Stimulation in Rat Models.
abstract: Although deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been a promising alternative for treating several neural disorders, the mechanisms underlying the DBS remain not fully understood. As rat models provide the advantage of recording and stimulating different disease-related regions simultaneously, this paper proposes a battery-less, implantable neuro-electronic interface suitable for studying DBS mechanisms with a freely-moving rat. The neuro-electronic interface mainly consists of a microsystem able to interact with eight different brain regions bi-directionally and simultaneously. To minimize the size of the implant, the microsystem receives power and transmits data through a single coil. In addition, particular attention is paid to the capability of recording neural activities right after each stimulation, so as to acquire information on how stimulations modulate neural activities. The microsystem has been fabricated with the standard 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The chip area is 7.74 mm (2) , and the microsystem is able to operate with a single supply voltage of 1 V. The wireless interface allows a maximum power of 10 mW to be transmitted together with either uplink or downlink data at a rate of 2 Mbps or 100 kbps, respectively. The input referred noise of recording amplifiers is 1.16 μVrms, and the stimulation voltage is tunable from 1.5 V to 4.5 V with 5-bit resolution. After the electrical functionality of the microsystem is tested, the capability of the microsystem to interface with rat brain is further examined and compared with conventional instruments. All experimental results are presented and discussed in this paper.
authors.forename: Yu-Po
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Chun-Yi
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.forename: Pin-Yang
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Zong-Ye
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hsiang-Hui
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Yi-Ting
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Chi-Fen
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Po-Chiun
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Kea-Tiong
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Hsi-Pin
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yen-Chung
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Shih-Rung
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.forename: Hsin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D004867:Equipment Design; D051381:Rats; D059015:Wireless Technology