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

Informazioni relative al progetto

REFLEX

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 101027005

DOI

10.3030/101027005

Progetto concluso il 31 Marzo 2023

Data della firma CE 23 Marzo 2021

Data di avvio 1 Giugno 2021

Data di completamento 16 Giugno 2023

Finanziato da

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Costo totale

€ 191 149,44

Contributo UE

€ 191 149,44

Coordinato da

ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE
Switzerland

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

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-06-01 al 2023-05-31

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

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.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

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.

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

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