Microelectrode Arrays

The development of implantable devices which enable fully wireless transmission of brain signals, recorded by microelectrode arrays (MEA) as dynamical neural circuit information, is one important goal for advancing human neuroprostheses. Current brain sensing research for prostheses via first clinical trials is offering tantalizing glimpses for the future, even if these technologies are cumbersome, percutaneous, and limited in their scalability for larger cortical coverage. Here we summarize some engineering challenges and constraints that apply to the design and fabrication of active electronic microcircuits in wireless devices, be embedded in the head area below the skin of a subject, which take their input from cortical MEAs. We demonstrate a hermetically sealed chronic, subcutaneous implant realized in our laboratories which has been implanted into mobile pigs and primates for high-speed digital, radio-frequency transmission or neural data to nearby receivers and neural decoders.