Imec has designed a low-power, miniature chip for large-scale recordings that claims to be 16 times smaller than the state of the art.

The  miniaturisation (total area per channel of 0.005mm2) was achieved by applying smart design solutions on the one hand and harnessing the advantages of a smaller technology node on the other hand.

It uses a direct digitisation architecture which aims at converting the weak neural signals from the analogue to the digital domain as close as possible to the electrodes that capture them.

This approach saves area and improves the signal quality. In addition, with this new prototype, the team explored for the first time a 22nm-CMOS technology.

At the same time, imec is working on the wireless transfer of the enormous amounts of data these high-density probes create.

They designed a UWB transmitter chip that pushes data rates up to 1.66 Gb/s using little power.

In addition, the researchers increased the wireless part of the system by removing the wire between the implant and the head-mounted or subcutaneous module.

Using galvanic-coupled body channel communication, imec demonstrated a transdural link that can transmit the implant’s data at  >250 Mbps.

Lastly, the team worked on ways to compress the data. A  neuromorphic sensing system based on how neurons relay information demonstrates data compression rates of >125 times, barely requiring energy.

These advancements will enable the next leap into miniature, high-density, low-power wireless brain implants.