Neural stimulators for retinal prosthesis embedded with CMOS microchips

摘要

A retinal prosthesis is one of the candidate technologies to help blind patients regain their vision. Electrical stimulation of the retinal cells evokes a visual sensation such as phosphene. We have proposed retinal stimulators using a smart electrode embedded with CMOS microchips. A large-scale array, which is required for high-resolution restoration of vision, can be achieved using the smart electrode. Because CMOS microchips have a multiplexer function, many smart electrodes can be controlled using a few wires. Stimulus current generators are also integrated into the microchips to realize electrical stimulation without an external stimulator. We have demonstrated prototypes based on the smart electrode architecture. A high-density electrode array was fabricated using built-in CMOS microchips that were embedded in stimulus electrodes. The prototype was implanted into an extracted eyeball, and functional validation was performed.