High Resolution, Reduced Energy Flexible Electronics for Enhanced Brain-Spine Interfaces (REFLEX)

Project Information

REFLEX

Grant agreement ID: 101027005

DOI

10.3030/101027005

Project terminated on 31 March 2023

EC signature date 23 March 2021

Start date 1 June 2021

End date 16 June 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 191 149,44

EU contribution

€ 191 149,44

Coordinated by

ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REFLEX (High Resolution, Reduced Energy Flexible Electronics for Enhanced Brain-Spine Interfaces (REFLEX))

Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2023-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

High Resolution, Reduced Energy Flexible Electronics for Enhanced Brain-Spine Interfaces (REFLEX) is an interdisciplinary project that seeks to overcome power and packaging barriers that are limiting clinical treatments for bio-electronic devices.

Emerging bioelectronic medical devices (BMDs), are improving treatments for injuries and disorders in the nervous system. But despite recent successes, the lack of minimally invasive BMDs remains a barrier to real-time, closed-loop treatments.

REFLEX leverages ultra low-power backscatter wireless communication and soft, conformable electrode arrays to create minimally invasive, fully-wireless BMDs. In doing so, REFLEX seeks to advance the state-of-the-art in low power wireless sensing as well as fully-integrated electronic devices for fundamental research and clinical therapies.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

REFLEX has accomplished the following results:
- First in vivo validation of Bluetooth Low Energy backscatter communication, demonstrating the ability to detect and transmit microvolt-level auditory evoked potentials to off-the-shelf receivers at orders-of-magnitude lower power levels. To be published at Transducers 2023.
- Development of a fully-wireless method for corrosion detection enabling high-resolution measurements of water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) to test and validate implant encapsulations. Publication to be submitted.
- Design and validation of a generalized, all-digital vector modulation scheme for low-power backscatter communication systems. Publication submitted May 2023.
- Analysis and measurement of gain pattern distortion due to dielectric resonator effects arising in small animal host bodies. Publication submitted April 2023.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The work on low-power wireless solutions carried out during the fellowship stands to create new market opportunities and strengthen the competitiveness of companies. The work demonstrated important innovations in ultra-low power backscatter communication that could be an enabling technology for future wireless systems. In one experiment, the proposed backscatter communication technology was demonstrated as an uplink for challenging-to-measure biological signals at nearly 20X lower power consumption than comparable off-the-shelf radios currently available to purchase. Furthermore, the all-digital nature of this work showed that there is a straightforward path for transferring this technology to common CMOS semiconductor fabrication technologies, both proprietary and open-source, offering additional size, weight, and power consumption gains. These results stand to enhance our ability to connect wireless measurement systems, such as improving point-of-care wearable medical solutions for better diagnostics or improved tools for fundamental research in neural engineering.

Example of a Backscatter Implant Developed for REFLEX