A neural-signal sensing system with multi-input-channels was designed utilizing a new chopper amplifier with direct connected to a multiplexer. The proposed system consists of multiplexers, chopper amplifiers, a multi-mode analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and a wireless transmitter. It enables to measure 50-channel signals at the same time, which are selected out of 100 channels to detect useful information. The test chip including 10-channel-inputs chopper-amplifier and multi-mode ADC, that was designed and fabricated with a mixed signal 0.35-µm CMOS technology. Utilizing the proposed direct chopper input scheme and the shared chopper amplifier, the circuits was designed with a small area of 9.4 mm2. High accuracy channel selecting and multiplexing operations were confirmed, and an equivalent input noise of 10-nV/root-Hz was obtained with test chip measurements. Power dissipation of the chopper amplifier and the ADC were 6.0-mW and 2.5-mW at a 3-V supply voltage, respectively.

We propose a neural-sensing LSI with a bi-directional wireless interface, which is capable of detecting 5-channel neural signals in a living animal. The proposed sensing LSI consists of a multiplexer with 5-channels selectable from 10 channels, a chopper amplifier using a new direct-chopper-input scheme, a programmable multi-mode analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and a wireless-transmitter/receiver with BPSK modulation signals. The test-chip was implemented by mixed-signal 0.35-µm CMOS technology. We measured the test chip and confirmed basic operations of these blocks. The chopper-amplifier achieved 66-dB DC gain, bandwidth of 400 kHz, and 4-µV noise with power dissipation of 6-mW with a 3-V supply. We observed real nerve signals in a living cricket using the proposed chopper amplifier. ADC achieved 52-ksps operation with power dissipation of 0.43-mW at 3-V supply. The wireless transmitter achieved 1-Mbps data transmission at a distance of 1-m with 1.5-mW power dissipation at 3-V supply.