An RF-Ultrasound Relay for Powering Deep Implants Across Air-Tissue Interfaces with a Multi-Output Regulating Rectifier and Ultrasound Beamforming

• DOI: 10.23919/vlsicircuits52068.2021.9492509
• Publication Date: 2021-07-28T20:33:42Z
• Authors: Ernest So; Pyungwoo Yeon; E. J. Chichilnisky; Amin Arbabian
• Keywords: Rectifier (neural networks); Interface (matter)

Single modality wireless power has limited depth for mm-sized implants across air-tissue (e.g. retina implants) or skull-tissue interfaces because of high loss in tissue (RF, optical) reflection at the medium interface (ultrasound). The proposed RF-ultrasound (US) relay uses an RF link to a chip which rectifies and transmits focused ultrasound implant using 6-channel phased array with 251% efficiency improvement 2.5 cm over fixed focusing.