A CMOS-based lab-on-chip array for the combined magnetic stimulation and opto-chemical sensing of neural tissue

Abstract

This paper presents a novel CMOS-based lab-on-chip platform for non-contact magnetic stimulation and recording of neural tissue. The proposed system is the first of its kind to integrate magnetic-stimulation and opto-chemical sensing in a single pixel, tesselated to form an 8 × 8 array. Fabricated in a commercially-available 0.35 ¿m CMOS technology, the system can be intrinsically used for both optical imaging and pH sensing and includes mechanisms for calibrating out sensor variation and mismatch. In addition to sensory acquisition via an integrated 10-bit ADC, a 64-instruction spatiotemporal pattern generator has been embedded within the array for driving the microscale magnetic neural stimulation. In this application the ISFET-based sensors are used to capacitively-couple neuronal charge in close proximity to the floating gate. Optical imaging hardware has also been embedded to provide topographic detail of the neural tissue.