Implementation of a Charge-Controlled Stimulation Method in a Monolithic Integrated CMOS-Chip for Excitation of Retinal Neuron Cells

Abstract

In this work, the implementation of the chargecontrolled method in a CMOS chip is presented. The idea of the method is that the transferred total charge quantity is composed of a number of packets which are intended to stimulate the cells of the retina electrically. In addition, it will be compared with already established methods. The influence of electrode interfaces on the process is investigated in the analytical description as well. Furthermore, options for the implementation in an integrated circuit are presented, in which a feedback is used to control the transferred charge amount per clock. Finally, a system concept for simultaneous bidirectional communication between retinal cells and the electronics is presented. Read-out capabilities for increasing the stimulation safety are shown.