Title:  Neural Interface System for Long-term Behavioral Experiments with Small Freely Moving Animals

Committee:

Dr. Omer Inan, ECE, Chair , Advisor

Dr. Wen Li, Michigan State

Dr. Hua Wang, ECE

Dr. Farrokh Ayazi, ECE

Dr. Benjamin Klein, ECE

Abstract:

Multimodal implantable medical devices (IMDs) can enable neuromodulation-based therapies for diseases and conditions that currently cannot be treated adequately with medication alone, thus potentially improve the quality of life for people worldwide. The objective of my research is to advance biomedical systems for behavioral neuroscience studies on small freely moving animals. Spanning from the development of different types of IMDs to wireless power transmission (WPT) strategies and to wireless data acquisition interfaces, several innovative system- and circuit-level techniques have been proposed. This presentation will detail the development of each fundamental component and how these components come together to form the complete biomedical system. To be more specific, head-mounted devices, furnished with both neural recording, as well as electrical stimulation and/or optical stimulation for closed-loop neuromodulation applications, will be discussed. In addition, tiny implant design, with miniaturized footprint and minimized power consumption, aiming to develop the distributed architecture, which includes a large number of tiny implants, will be introduced. For untethered and battery-free operation of the IMDs, supporting systems are correspondingly developed. Two WPT systems, which can wirelessly power & control head-mounted devices and tiny implants respectively, will be described. A data acquisition system for collecting the large amount of recording data and analyzing the recovered data in real time will also be talked about. In collaboration with researchers in bioMEMS and biomedical science, in vivo results for the functionality and robustness evaluation of the IMDs and the supporting systems will be presented. Finally, this presentation will be concluded with future research directions to address remaining challenges for translating the IMD technologies to clinical practice.