A wireless multi-channel implantable neural recording microsystem based on optimized analog TDM-FDM combination

Crosstalk noise (CT) is a limiting factor to increase the number of channels in analog Time-Division-Multiplexing (TDM)-based Wireless Neural Recording microsystems (WNRs). This paper proposes a novel approach to mitigate and decrease the effect of the CT by combining TDM with Frequency-Division-Multiplexing (FDM). In particular, we evaluate some possible configurations of the TDM-FDM combination and present a system that has less CT than other configurations. A 12-channel WNR based on the proposed system is designed in both system and circuit-level. In this system, channels are first divided into three 4-channel groups and after multiplexing in time domain, they are combined together with FDM method. While the group containing the marker pulse is located in the base-band, the second and third group are shifted to the frequency domain by employing quadrature modulation. The circuit-level of the system is designed and simulated by using 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The designed circuit consumes a power of 1.4 mW at a supply voltage of 1.8 V. The performance of the proposed system is also compared with simple TDM-based WNR. Simulations shows that in the proposed system the CT is considerably decreased.     

A fully-integrated 16-channel EEG readout front-end for neural recording applications

In this paper, a power-efficient, low noise analog front-end (AFE) is presented which employs the chopper-stabilized technique. A new instrumentation amplifier structure leads to a high input impedance beyond 10 GΩ at the frequency of 10 Hz. Furthermore, an adaptive DC servo loop (DSL) is proposed which is conditionally activated to minimize the negative impact of this block on the noise performance of the AFE. The integrated input-referred noise of the amplifier is 1.33 µVrms and 1.19 µVrms over the 0.5 Hz–100 Hz frequency range when the DSL is enabled or disabled, respectively. Also, considering different aspects of the AFE, a new comprehensive figure of merit (FOM) is introduced to compare different state-of-the-art biopotential amplifiers. The power consumption and bandwidth of the designed 16-channel AFE are 15.81 µW and 235 Hz, respectively. The circuit is realized in the 180 nm standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology using a 1 V power supply.     

基于FFT的OFDM-UWB系统的均衡接收

以双带OFDM-UWB通信系统为背景,分析了基于FFT算法的三种均衡接收方法-迫零均衡、MMSE均衡和相位均衡.在Matlab的simulink平台上对信道CM1进行仿真,结果表明:为了使系统误比特率达到10-4的性能,采用相位均衡方法需要的SNR最低,仅为2dB;可见,OFDM-UWB通信系统相位均衡接收方法的系统性能比其它均衡接收方法都要好.     

Combining frequency-division and code-division multiplexing in ahigh-capacity optical network

The combination of frequency division and code division multiplexing in a multiaccess network such that the beneficial aspects of each technique mitigate the shortcomings of the other is addressed. The feasibility and expected performance of the resulting hybrid network are examined. CDMA (code-division multiple access) is used to eliminate the need for laser frequency control, which is required for pure FDMA (frequency-division multiaccess) schemes. On the other hand, an FDMA-like mutual avoidance scheme exploits the limited tunability available to keep signals away from one another as much as possible, relieving the need for CDMA to protect against more than the occasional crossover of one interfering signal. This significantly limits the amount of spectral spreading required. The use of the hybrid network for high-bit-rate and low-bit-rate applications is discussed. The power budget for a local network utilizing a star coupler is outlined     

A low-noise clockless simultaneous 32-channel wireless neural recording system with adjustable resolution

We present a 32-channel wireless implantable neural recording (WINeR-5) system-on-a-chip (SoC) that operates based on time division multiplexing (TDM) of pulse width modulated (PWM) samples, similar to a single-slope analog to digital converter (ADC) that is made wireless. By transmitting a TDM–PWM signal, we have relaxed the need for wide bandwidth and accurate timing between transmitter and receiver units, which is necessary in wideband digital wireless links. The WINeR-5 system uses FSK modulation scheme with RF carrier at 898/926 MHz. The baseband TDM–PWM signal bandwidth is 18 MHz, which is also the bandwidth of the receiver baseband low-pass filter. Further, by moving the digitization circuitry outside the body, we have reduced the size, complexity, and power consumption of the implantable unit. A clockless asynchronous design has been utilized to manage TDM switching times such that no switching occurs during sensitive PWM onsets. Control over sampling rate, dynamic range, and resolution provides the user with tradeoffs that can optimize the system performance for the intended application. The SoC has been implemented in a 0.5-μm standard CMOS process, measuring 3.3 × 3 mm² and consuming 5.6 mW at ±1.5 V when all channels are active. Measured input referred noise for the entire system, including the receiver at 1 m distance, is 4.9 μV_rms in 1 Hz–8.8 kHz range. Functionality of the WINeR-5 system has also been demonstrated in acute in vivo experiments.     

A chaotic interleaving scheme for continuous-phase modulation-based orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing systems

In this article, we propose a chaotic interleaving scheme for continuous-phase modulation-based orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (CPM-OFDM) systems. The idea of chaotic maps randomisation (CMR) is exploited in this scheme. CMR generates permuted sequences from the sequences to be transmitted with lower correlation among their samples, and hence a better Bit Error Rate (BER) performance can be achieved. The proposed CMR-CPM-OFDM system combines the advantages of frequency diversity and power efficiency from CPM-OFDM and performance improvement from chaotic interleaving. The BER performance of the CPM-OFDM system with and without chaotic interleaving is evaluated by computer simulations. Also, a comparison between chaotic interleaving and block interleaving is performed. Simulation results show that, the proposed chaotic interleaving scheme can greatly improve the performance of CPM-OFDM systems. Furthermore, the results show that the proposed chaotic interleaving scheme outperforms the traditional block interleaving scheme for CPM-OFDM systems. The results show also that, the proposed CMR-CPM-OFDM system provides a good trade-off between system performance and bandwidth efficiency.     

A wireless implantable multichannel digital neural recording systemfor a micromachined sieve electrode

This paper reports the development of an implantable, fully integrated, multichannel peripheral neural recording system, which is powered and controlled using an RF telemetry link. The system allows recording of ±500 μV neural signals from axons regenerated through a micromachined silicon sieve electrode. These signals are amplified using on-chip 100 Hz to 3.1 kHz bandlimited amplifiers, multiplexed, and digitized with a low-power (<2 mW), moderate speed (8 μs/b) current-mode 8-b analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The digitized signal is transmitted to the outside world using a passive RF telemetry link. The circuit is implemented using a bipolar CMOS process. The signal processing CMOS circuitry dissipates only 10 mW of power from a 5-V supply while operating at 2 MHz and consumes 4×4 mm² of area. The overall circuit including the RF interface circuitry contains over 5000 transistors, dissipates 90 mW of power, and consumes 4×6 mm² of area     

一款宽供电电压范围工作的植入式神经信号记录前端芯片

摘要：本文设计了一款宽电压供电范围、用于神经电信号采集的前端芯片。该芯片主要由前端放大电路、仪表放大器（IA）和循环结构模数转换器（CADC）构成。在不采用分立元件的情况下,前端放大电路采用电容耦合、电容反馈的拓扑结构,结合伪电阻的应用,产生一个小于1Hz的-3dB高通频率截止点。双运算仪表放大器用于进一步提高增益的同时也为后续的模数转换电路提供一个较低的输出阻抗。前端放大电路和仪表放大电路共提供45.8dB的增益,其等效输入参考噪声电压为6.7uV从1Hz~5KHz积分）。放大后的信号被12位采样精度的ADC采样,该ADC最高采样速率为139KS/s,有效位数为8.7位。整个电路在1.34V到3.3V供电范围内消耗的总电流为165uA到 216uA。该芯片采用联华电子公司（UMC）的0.18-um 工艺制造,总面积1.06mm2 。该芯片在仿真生理环境下成功地记录到了神经电信号。     

Low-power high-sensitivity spike detectors for implantable VLSI neural recording microsystems

A spike detector has become a necessity of a contemporary multichannel neural recording microsystem for data-compression. This paper proposes two spike detection algorithms, frequency-enhanced nonlinear energy operator (fNEO) and energy-of-derivative (ED), to solve the sensitivity degradation suffered by the conventional nonlinear energy operator (NEO) at the presence of large-amplitude baseline interferences. The efficiency of NEO, fNEO and ED algorithms are evaluated with Simulink programs firstly and then implemented into three low-power spike detectors with a standard 0.13- \(\mu m\) CMOS process. To achieve a low-power design, subthreshold CMOS analog multipliers, derivatives and adders are developed to work with a low supply voltage, 0.5 V. The power dissipation of the proposed fNEO spike detector and ED spike detector are only 258.7 and 129.4 nW, respectively. The quantitative investigation shown in the paper indicates that both fNEO and ED spike detectors achieves superior performance than the conventional NEO spike detector. Considering its lowest power dissipation, the ED spike detector is selected for our application. Further statistical evaluations based on the true positive and false positive detection rate proves that the ED spike detectors achieves higher detection rate than that of the conventional NEO spike detector but dissipates 48 % less power.     

Filter orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing scheme based on polar code in underwater acoustic communication with non-Gaussian distribution noise

The research domain of underwater communication has garnered much interest among researchers exploring underwater activities. The underwater environment differs from the terrestrial setting. Some of the main challenges in underwater communication are limited bandwidth, low data rate, propagation delay, and high bit error rate (BER). As such, this study assessed the underwater acoustic (UWA) aspect and explored the expression of error performance based on t-distribution noise. Filter orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing refers to a new waveform candidate that has been adopted in UWA, along with turbo and polar codes. The empirical outcomes demonstrated that the noise did not adhere to Gaussian distribution, whereas the simulation results revealed that the filter applied in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing could significantly suppress out-of-band emission. Additionally, the performance of the turbo code was superior to that of the polar code by 2 dB at BER 10⁻³.     

基于光时分复用的电光模数转换

提出了一种基于光时分复用的电光模数转换方案,该方案仅利用一个连续波激光器和电光调制器,结合光纤延迟线实现光信号的时分复用,并通过现有的电子ADC完成模数转换。该方案结构简单,可扩展性高。两路时分复用模数转换系统实验中得到的信号对噪声和失真比为28.5dB,等效于约4.44位的有效位数并分析了造成量化误差的主要因素和减少误差的方法。     

A 16-channel CMOS neural stimulating array

A probe designed for the highly selective long-term stimulation of neuronal assemblies in the central nervous system is described. The micromachined multishank probe incorporates CMOS circuitry to control the output current on 16 iridium oxide (IrO) electrode sites. Serial site addresses and current amplitude data are loaded into the probe at 4 MHz and converted to analog stimulus currents. The probe circuitry dissipates only 80 μW from ±5-V supplies when not delivering stimulus currents and uses five external leads. It permits the IrO sites to be activated by voltammetry from off-chip, provides per-channel pulse time-outs to prevent accidental overstimulation of the tissue, and signals the external world, using a status bit, in the event of certain trouble conditions. The stimulating site impedances and the stimulus currents can be measured from off chip on demand. The circuitry is implemented in a single-metal, single-poly, CMOS process with 3-μm minimum features using 7100 transistors in an area of 11 mm²     

基于STM32的24路舵机同步控制系统设计

针对多路舵机速度和位置同步控制问题,提出一种多路舵机控制信号产生及控制方法,仅采用STM32芯片的一个通用定时器实现24路舵机PWM控制信号的精确独立输出控制。基于分时复用的方法,实现一个比较寄存器控制6路舵机,故利用一个定时器的4个比较寄存器及其比较中断和1个更新中断,最终实现24路舵机位置和速度的同步控制。基于该方法进行了硬件系统设计,主要包括电源模块、舵机接口模块、存储模块、低压报警模块、键盘模块及通信模块。最后,实现了24路舵机控制系统的设计,并成功应用在17自由度的人形机器人中,且在华北五省(市、自治区)大学生机器人大赛中获得一等奖,验证了控制系统的稳定性、可靠性及有效性。     

基于双纤单向波分复用技术的时间同步系统

提出了一种基于双纤单向波分复用技术的时间同步系统。系统主从站点之间由双光纤链路连接,通过4台时间间隔计数器对两种波长、4路时间信号的传输时延值测量及对应的比值关系,可对主从站点的时钟钟差进行精准测算。本方案算法可消除环境温度对光纤长度、折射率、传输群时延等因素的影响。主从站点分别由100km和90km两根光纤相连,当光纤链路温度在-20～40℃变化环境下,采用1310～1550nm波长时,能够将主从站点钟差估算误差降低约13ns,采用1490～1550nm波长时,授时精度将提升约200 ps。     

基于卷积神经网络的MIMO空分复用发射天线数目识别

针对传统多输入多输出(Multiple-Input Multiple-Output,MIMO)空分复用发射天线数目识别方法要求对于非合作方接收天线数目大于发射天线数目,以及特征寻找困难的问题,提出了一种基于卷积神经网络的MIMO空分复用发射天线数目识别方法.通过单天线接收目标信号,采集数据,再由卷积神经网络(Convolutional Neural Network,CNN)训练和测试.网络用发射端信号经过空时编码后表现出的不同特征识别发射天线数目.仿真和实测数据验证了CNN对于发射天线数目识别的效果,在信噪比大于15 dB时识别率可以达到85％.     

Multichannel neural recording system based on family ASICs processed in submicron technology

In this paper we present a measurement system for in vivo multichannel recordings of the electrophysiological activity of brain tissue. The system consists of penetrating Microelectrode Array (MEA), three versions of a Conditioning Module each equipped with different Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), Digitizer and PC Application for recorded data presentation and storage. The MEA consists of 64 15 μm diameter microelectrodes. The multichannel ASICs amplify and filter field and action potential signals. The custom-made Digitizer Module simultaneously acquires data from all channels with a 14 kS/s sample rate and 12 bit resolution. The resulting byte stream (about 2 MB/s) is transmitted to the PC via USB (Universal Serial Bus). Eventually the measurement data is decoded, presented to the system user and stored on a HDD. Preliminary system tests confirm its excellent performance (low input refereed noise, low power consumption, low area occupancy, ability of Action Potentials/Local Field Potentials separation). Our system equipped with multichannel ASICs meets requirements of many different neurobiology experiments.     

基于GMD算法空间分集与复用的研究

针对收发两端已知信道状态信息的MIMO(multiple input multiple output)系统,研究基于GMD(geometric mean decomposition)算法的VBLAST(vertical bell lab layered space-time)系统空间分集与复用性能。该算法将MIMO信道分解为多个具有相同信噪比的并行子信道,其编解码复杂度低,易于实现。在高信噪比下,对该算法的分集与复用曲线进行分析,结果表明该算法的空间分集与复用性能与最优曲线相比是次优的,但优于其他VBLAST方案。     

Application of discontinuous communications in channels with random parameters to transmit narrowband signals and signals with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing

An algorithm for increasing the interference immunity is analyzed in the case where the discontinuous communications method and its interconnecting with diversity reception in a Rayleigh channel are used for narrowband signals and signals with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing. It is demonstrated that the probability of errors can be diminished without a significant decrease in spectral efficiency.