Technology Review: A Battery-Free Implantable Neural Sensor

Description

A Battery-Free Implantable Neural Sensor

A tiny radio chip implanted in a moth harvests power and senses neural activity.

Thanks to the shrinking size of electronics, researchers have been exploring increasingly sophisticated implantable devices, paving the way for new prosthetics and brain-machine interfaces. But a big challenge has been how to deliver power to electronic components embedded within the body.

Now electrical engineers at the University of Washington have developed an implantable neural sensing chip that needs less power. Other wireless medical devices, such as cochlea or retinal implants, rely on inductive coupling, which means the power source needs to be centimeters away. The new sensor platform, called NeuralWISP, draws power from a radio ...

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http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23878/page1/

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23878/page1/