Neural interfaces have made considerable technology-driven advances recently, cochlear implants are an early example of clinically relevant implantable devices. Modern electronics is enabling previously impossible brain research experiments and major progress has been made toward
neurally controlled prosthetics. Because transcutaneous wiring poses a significant infection risk, it is desirable that a neural interface communicate and receive power wirelessly, say researchers from the University of Washington and Intel Research Seattle, who have designed the required device.
They noted that previous systems have achieved wireless operation by
using a near-field inductive link to transmit power and data. However, these systems require that the external coil be located within a few centimeters of the internal coil. A wireless neural interface with a range of up to 1 meter has been created to enable the removal of the interrogator from the head. The entire system draws an average 20μA from the harvested 1.8V supply. This allows wireless interfaces to be placed on small animals incapable of carrying the interrogator hardware, such as mice, they point out.
Their wireless neural interface harvests power from the radio-frequency (RF) energy provided by a standard commercial UHF RFID reader. The system operates at a distance of up to 1m from the reader. It records the spike count in a programmable window (typically 1-10s) and subsequently transmits the spike count to the reader as part of the tag identification number that the reader is designed to acquire. The researchers report that this allows the neuroscientist a wireless, battery-free method of recording spike density as various tasks are performed or stimuli are presented.
For more read : Energy Harvesting and Storage for Electronic Devices 2010-2020
