Sensory Particles with Optical Telemetry

Current retinal prostheses provide electrical stimulation without feedback from the stimulated neurons. Incorporation of multichannel recording electronics would typically require trans-scleral cables for power supply and data transmission. In this work, we explore a wireless, optoelectronic, miniature, modular, and distributed electro-neural interface for recording, which we call Sensory Particles with Optical Telemetry (SPOT). It can be used in an advanced, bi-directional retinal prosthesis and other sensory applications. Emphasis is placed on the novel telemetry stage. SPOTs are powered by near-infrared light and transmit information by light. As a proof of concept, we designed and built a low-power, small-footprint linear transconductance circuit utilizing chopper stabilization in 130nm CMOS. Our design achieved 57 mS transconductance within 3.5 kHz bandwidth, and a near-infrared (NIR) power density of 0.5 mW/mm
²
, well within the ocular and thermal safety limits. The telemetry circuit consumes 0.015 mm
²
area, and each SPOT can be powered by a single photovoltaic (PV) supply of area 0.0056 mm
²
. Electrical spikes transmitted by an 850nm LED were detected with 15 dB SNR, at the output of the optical link.