THE EVOLUTION OF NEUROPROSTHESES

Lawrence Livermore - Flexible Silicone-Based Electrode Arrays

Flexible metallized silicone prototype

Process Development(Batch Fabrication)

•Flexible substrate•Metal deposition•Encapsulation•Electrical contacts

Conformal test implant

Features:• Interface with delicate neural tissue• Conformal with neural tissue• Resilient during implantation• Biocompatible for long term implantation

LLNL is developing soft electrode arrays that readily

conform to the retina.

• Sandia National Laboratories

Bulk Micromachined Components

Bosch etched single crystal silicon electrodes

Argonne National Labs - Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD) as Bioinert Hermetic Coating for Si Microchip Encapsulation

Hermetic UNCD coating encapsulates Si micro-chip to make it bio-inert /biocompatible

UNCD-coated microtips provide high-current / bio-inert electrode for current injection into retina

Si

UNCD

1 µm1 µm

Adaptive optics can provide unique diagnostic capability for high resolution retinal imaging

Visual acuity is degraded by aberrations in the cornea and lens.

Adaptive optics correct for these aberrations.

wavefront corrector

•An adaptive optics system can be used to sense and correct aberrations in a subject’s eye and allow detailed studies of retinal structure under a variety of conditions.

Without AO

Images of single cells in the living human retina

With AO