Medical Device Link.

Industry Intelligence: Deep Thoughts

At the Design, Automation & Test in Europe (DATE) conference held in April in Nice, France, independent research firm IMEC presented a new design strategy for brain implants. The Leuven, Belgium–based company used this strategy to create a prototype multi-electrode stimulation and recording probe for deep-brain stimulation.

Brain implants for electrical stimulation of specific brain areas are used as a last-resort therapy for conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Currently available deep-brain stimulation probes use millimeter-size electrodes, which stimulate, in an unfocused way, a large area of the brain and have significant unwanted side effects.

“To enable a more-precise stimulation and recording, we need electrodes that are as small as individual neurons,” says Wolfgang Eberle, Senior Scientist and Project Manager at IMEC’s bioelectronics research group. “Such small electrodes can be made with semiconductor process technology, appropriate design tools and advanced electronic signal processing,” he adds. “At DATE, we wanted to bring this message to the design community, showing the huge opportunities that it offers the healthcare sector.”

IMEC’s design and modeling strategy could enable the development of advanced brain implants consisting of multiple electrodes allowing simultaneous stimulation and recording. This strategy was used to create prototype probes with 10 micrometer-size electrodes and various electrode topologies.

According to the company, this new design approach opens up possibilities for more-effective stimulation with fewer side effects, reduced energy consumption by focusing the stimulation current on the desired brain target and closed-loop control adapting the stimulation based on the recorded effect.

www.imec.be