"Neurograins" are fully wireless microscale implants that may be deployed to form a large-scale network of untethered, distributed, bidirectional neural interfacing nodes capable of active neural recording and electrical microstimulation.
An individual neurograin microdevice measures on the scale of 100 microns, and integrates microelectronic chiplets bearing circuitry for radio frequency energy-harvesting, neural sensing, cortical microstimulation and sophisticated networked bidirectional wireless telemetry, implemented using cutting-edge complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology.
The devices are hermetically-sealed for long-term reliability using novel thin-layer packaging approaches, allowing for minimal packaging volume overhead. Power delivery and telecommunications with the implant network are managed by external, wearable, “skin patch” radios, which are also capable of real-time data processing for read-out of neural data and write-in of neuromodulatory stimulation.
The round-trip communication latency across a one thousand-channel network is maintained within the limits of physiological resolution (millisecond scale). Key technologies for the Neurograin project include multi-disciplinary research for circuit design, embedded systems development, microfabrication, integration and packaging, radio frequency telecommunication, neural decoding and neurological surgery.