A 16-channel Si probe monolithically integrated with CMOS chips for neural recording

Multi -channel neural electrodes as a crucial means are of great significance for information exchange between the brain and computers. Herein, we present a 16 -channel Si -based active neural probe system that achieves a monolithic integration between the electrodes and circuits in a single probe, making it a standalone integrated electrophysiology recording system. The ASIC prepared on a base (2 x 2 mm 2 ) is a 16 -channel analog frontend (AFE) for neural recording, and each channel has a low -noise amplifier (LNA), a bandpass filter (BPF), a buffer and a current bias circuit. The 258 neural signal recording electrodes (22 x 24 mu m 2 ) are densely packed on a 50 mu m thick, 100 mu m wide, and 3 mm long shank. The ASIC of neural probe, internal interconnecting wires are all implemented in commercial SMIC 0.18 mu m CMOS technology. The neural probe system achieves a 3.6 mu V rms input -referred noise (IRN) in a bandwidth of 1.1Hz-10 kHz, 70.8 mu W power consumption, 0.0785 mm 2 area per channel, as well as an AFE gain of 58.1 dB Furthermore, the impedances of the Au electrodes can be obtained as 0.5-2.1 M Omega at a frequency of 1 kHz. The functionality of a 16 -channel silicon -based neural probe is validated in an in -vivo experiment on lab rats.