BASE: Bio-implantable Arrayed Sensing Environment
The Bio-implantable Arrayed Sensing Environment (BASE) seeks to address a fundamental problem in critical disease tracking: the lack of quick and actionable diagnostic feedback on applied therapies. It is composed of an implant ASIC, BASE-Hub, and a wireless power and data transfer setup, BASE-Link. Acting as an implantable hub deep within the body for sensor control, persistent data storage, and wireless power and data transfer via inductive coupling, BASE-Hub enables unprecedented long-term, asynchronous diagnostic sensing within disease sites through the following innovations:
1) > 5 cm implantation depth with a mm-scale implant – Using a novel mm-scale battery and conformal RX coil, a minimally-invasive, implantable form factor is retained, and the wireless link’s minimum required delivered power is lowered, since much less instantaneous power is needed to recharge the battery via BASE-Hub’s charge pump than to operate the implant. This directly extends the operating range of the link far past the state of the art (~5 cm depth at cm-scale size and < 1 cm depth at mm-scale size [1,2]).
2) A “plug and play” interface for multiplexed sensing – BASE-Hub’s finite state machine “turns on” standalone, on-implant companion sensor ICs and digitizes / deserializes their analog / serial digital outputs for storage in the 16384-word local memory and subsequent serial backscatter communication via on/off-keying on the 20 MHz inductive carrier. This interface significantly reduces the integration design burden for creators of otherwise implantable sensor frontends [3-5] and allows healthcare providers to track multiple parameters within the implantation site for the first time. BASE-Hub was taped out in X-FAB 180 nm CMOS in January 2023, and will complete bring-up and initial testing in the next few months. BASE-Link is being designed and assembled simultaneously and will showcase BASE-Hub’s dual capabilities to extend implantation depth and enable chronic, multiplexed sensing. Initial publication of the system’s research results is planned for the spring / summer of 2024.
Expected Graduation Date:
May, 2025
