Closed-loop eyelid reanimation system with real-time blink detection and electrochemical stimulation for facial nerve paralysis

Electrical stimulation in eyelid reanimation has been verified in previous studies as a potential treatment for facial nerve paralysis. Design challenges, including physical pain during stimulation, reducing the latency between the natural blink and the artificial blink, and patient-to-patient differences, make it difficult to build this system. In this paper, the design challenges are analyzed in detail, based on which a closed-loop electrochemical stimulation system is proposed. Using our system, real-time blink detection and electrical stimulation have been verified with FPGA and ASICs. Area of the proposed fully integrated chip, including electromyography (EMG) amplifier, blink detection processor, reduced instruction set computer (RISC), and current stimulator, is estimated to be 11.46mm2 in 0.35um CMOS process.