A compact neural recording interface based on silicon microelectrode

A prototype of hybrid neural recording interface has been developed for extracellular neural recording. It consists of a silicon-based plane microelectrode array and a CMOS low noise neural amplifier chip. The neural amplifier chip is designed and implemented in 0.18 mu m N-well CMOS 1P6M technology. The area of the neural preamplifier is only 0.042 mm(2) with a gain of 48.3 dB. The input equivalent noise is 4.73 mu Vrms within pass bands of 4 kHz. To avoid cable tethering for high dense multichannel neural recording interface and make it compact, flip-chip bonding is used to integrate the preamplifier chip and the microelectrode together. The hybrid device measures 3 mmx5.5 mmx330 mu m, which is convenient for implant or in-vivo neural recording. The hybrid device was testified in in-vivo experiment. Neural signals were recorded from hippocampus region of anesthetized Sprague Dawley rats successfully.