Applying Time-sharing technique in a multimodal compact low-power CMOS neurochip for simultaneous neurochemical and action potential recording

Brain is an electrochemical system and recent studies suggest simultaneous measurement of interrelated brain´s electrical and neurochemical activity may lead to better understanding of brain function in addition to developing optimal neural prosthetics. By exploiting opamp Time-sharing technique to minimized power dissipation and silicon area, we have fabricated a power efficient implantable CMOS microsystem for simultaneous measurement of Action Potential (AP) and neurotransmitter concentration. Both AP-recording and neurotransmitter sensing subsystems share a single 653 nW amplifier which senses picoscale to microscale current that corresponds to micromolar neurotransmitter concentration and microscale AP voltage. This microsystem is fabricated in CMOS 0.18 μm technology and tested using recorded signals from dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) area of a macaque monkey in our lab.