Under an existing funded grant, Dr. Rizzo (Principal Investigator, from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary) and his subcontractor Bionic Eye Technologies (Ithaca, NY) have worked to develop vision prostheses to restore functional sight to people with profound vision impairment. As part of this work, we have optimized a 324-channel wirelessly transmitter/receiver that provides power and data to an implanted high-density stimulator circuit (ASIC chip) behind the eye. This device represents a significant increase in the independently-controllable channel count over any commercially available neural stimulator. During the course of preparing units for a program of ?pre-clinical? testing for the device that has been vetted by the FDA, unanticipated problems were discovered with the ASIC chip?s wireless communication module. Our team has developed an effective a work- around solution, and this supplemental proposal seeks additional funds to validate the performance of our low- power, programmable, gate array-based wireless transceiver circuit. Successful validation of our ASIC + work- around solution will provide highly sophisticated circuitry that could be incorporated into a wide array of low- power implantable neuroprosthetic devices. Sub-awardee Bionic Eye will seek to take commercial advantage of this circuitry by offering licensing opportunities to other companies to disseminate this technology beyond what could be realized within the field of sight restoration alone.
The purpose of this proposal is to implement an improved wireless radio frequency communication system for implantable nerve stimulation devices based on the use of a Field Programmable Gate Array or FPGA chip. This miniature transmitter-receiver combination will be used to make existing communication systems for wirelessly controllable implants more robust, including the vision prosthesis system that is the subject of our research.
