CMOS Ultralow Power Brain Signal Acquisition Front-Ends: Design and Human Testing

IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2017 Oct;11(5):1111-1122. doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2017.2723607. Epub 2017 Aug 1.

Abstract

Two brain signal acquisition (BSA) front-ends incorporating two CMOS ultralow power, low-noise amplifier arrays and serializers operating in mosfet weak inversion region are presented. To boost the amplifier's gain for a given current budget, cross-coupled-pair active load topology is used in the first stages of these two amplifiers. These two BSA front-ends are fabricated in 130 and 180 nm CMOS processes, occupying 5.45 mm 2 and 0.352 mm 2 of die areas, respectively (excluding pad rings). The CMOS 130-nm amplifier array is comprised of 64 elements, where each amplifier element consumes 0.216 μW from 0.4 V supply, has input-referred noise voltage (IRNoise) of 2.19 μV[Formula: see text] corresponding to a power efficiency factor (PEF) of 11.7, and occupies 0.044 mm 2 of die area. The CMOS 180 nm amplifier array employs 4 elements, where each element consumes 0.69 μW from 0.6 V supply with IRNoise of 2.3 μV[Formula: see text] (corresponding to a PEF of 31.3) and 0.051 mm 2 of die area. Noninvasive electroencephalographic and invasive electrocorticographic signals were recorded real time directly on able-bodied human subjects, showing feasibility of using these analog front-ends for future fully implantable BSA and brain- computer interface systems.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Amplifiers, Electronic*
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain-Computer Interfaces
  • Electrocorticography / instrumentation
  • Electrocorticography / methods*
  • Electrodes, Implanted
  • Equipment Design
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Signal-To-Noise Ratio