Towards A Retinal Prosthesis for the Blind; Advanced Microelectronics Combined with A Nanochannel Glass Electrode Array

An important new area of biomedical engineering is the development of neural prosthesis particularly in the area of cochlear and retinal devices. An intraocular retinal prosthesis test device is currently under development at NRL/JHU. The microelectronic device has an image format of 80 x 40 unit cells interfaced to the retinal surface via an array of microwires in a glass matrix. The system architecture and technology development issues are discussed as well as the topic of biocompatibility. This test device will enable acute human experiments in an operating room environment to demonstrate a massively parallel interface between retinal tissue and a microelectronic array.