Thermal impact of an active 3-D microelectrode array implanted in the brain

A chronically implantable, wireless neural interface device will require integrating electronic circuitry with the interfacing microelectrodes in order to eliminate wired connections. Since the integrated circuit (IC) dissipates a certain amount of power, it will raise the temperature in surrounding tissues where it is implanted. In this paper, the thermal influence of the integrated 3-D Utah electrode array (UEA) device implanted in the brain was investigated by numerical simulation using finite element analysis (FEA) and by experimental measurement in vitro as well as in vivo. The numerically calculated and experimentally measured temperature increases due to the UEA implantation were in good agreement. The experimentally validated numerical model predicted that the temperature increases linearly with power dissipation through the UEA, with a slope of 0.029 degrees C/mW over the power dissipation levels expected to be used. The influences of blood perfusion, brain metabolism, and UEA geometry on tissue heating were also investigated using the numerical model.