Fully-implantable auditory prostheses: restoring hearing to the profoundly deaf

Present cochlear prostheses employ up to 24 electrodes to electrically stimulate the auditory nerve with currents of 200-800 /spl mu/A, charge-balanced pulse rates of 100 Kpps or more, and pulse widths of 20-200 /spl mu/sec/phase. To explore performance limits, MEMS-based microsystems will soon provide as many as 128 electrode sites and up to 16 parallel data channels. Fully-implantable microsystems for the cochlear nucleus are also being developed using 3D arrays of penetrating electrodes. Button-size implant prototypes with 1024 multiplexed electrode sites on 400 /spl mu/m centers have been realized. Packaging techniques are consistent with many decades of use in-vivo, while wireless interfaces can provide data at over 1 Mb/s in addition to power. These implantable microsystems will restore hearing to an expanding population of individuals during the coming decade as well as serve as a generic platform for dealing with a number of other disorders.

[1]  F A Spelman,et al.  The past, present, and future of cochlear prostheses. , 1999, IEEE engineering in medicine and biology magazine : the quarterly magazine of the Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society.

[2]  David J. Anderson,et al.  Electrochemical deposition and characterization of conducting polymer polypyrrole/PSS on multichannel neural probes , 2001 .

[3]  Jeffrey Allen,et al.  A single chip, fully integrated, telemetry powered system for peripheral nerve stimulation. , 1998 .

[4]  K. Najafi,et al.  Long-term testing of hermetic anodically bonded glass-silicon packages , 2002, Technical Digest. MEMS 2002 IEEE International Conference. Fifteenth IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (Cat. No.02CH37266).

[5]  A. Benabid,et al.  Electrical stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in advanced Parkinson's disease. , 1998, The New England journal of medicine.

[6]  Kensall D. Wise,et al.  A 256-Site 3D CMOS Microelectrode Array for Multipoint Stimulation and Recording in the Central Nervous System , 2001 .

[7]  K. Horch,et al.  A silicon-based, three-dimensional neural interface: manufacturing processes for an intracortical electrode array , 1991, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[8]  K. Wise,et al.  An integrated-circuit approach to extracellular microelectrodes. , 1970, IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering.

[9]  Qing Bai,et al.  Single-unit neural recording with active microelectrode arrays , 2001, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[10]  R. R. Carter,et al.  Multiple single-unit recordings from the CNS using thin-film electrode arrays , 1993 .

[11]  Khalil Najafi,et al.  A BiCMOS wireless interface chip for micromachined stimulating microprobes , 2002, 2nd Annual International IEEE-EMBS Special Topic Conference on Microtechnologies in Medicine and Biology. Proceedings (Cat. No.02EX578).

[12]  K. Najafi,et al.  A hermetic glass-silicon micropackage with high-density on-chip feedthroughs for sensors and actuators , 1996 .

[13]  K.D. Wise.  Wireless implantable microsystems: coming breakthroughs in health care , 2002, 2002 Symposium on VLSI Circuits. Digest of Technical Papers (Cat. No.02CH37302).

[14]  K. Wise,et al.  A high-yield IC-compatible multichannel recording array , 1985, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.