Review: A Highly-Integrated 1536-Channel Quad-Shank Monolithic Neural Probe in 55nm CMOS for Full-Band Raw-Signal Recording
Paper
A Highly-Integrated 1536-Channel Quad-Shank Monolithic Neural Probe in 55nm CMOS for Full-Band Raw-Signal Recording
Review by: 王奕如
Full Review: View Review Document (PDF)
Overview
This work presents a 1536-channel quad-shank monolithic neural probe fabricated in 55 nm CMOS, supporting simultaneous recording from up to 1536 out of 5120 electrodes.
Rather than focusing solely on minimum area or power per channel, the work addresses system-level trade-offs in large-scale neural recording, including electrode density, noise, power, area, multiplexing, and data readout.
Key Features
- 5120 electrodes / 1536 simultaneous recording channels
- Conventional IA–buffer–MUX–SAR ADC signal chain
- Dynamically biased buffers for reduced power
- 96 shared 12-bit SAR ADCs
- Shared ADC reference buffers
- Full-band recording of both AP and LFP signals
Key Results
| Parameter | Performance |
|---|---|
| Technology | 55 nm CMOS |
| Recording Electrodes | 5120 |
| Simultaneous Recording Channels | 1536 |
| Probe Structure | Quad-shank |
| ADC | 12-bit SAR |
| Channel Area | 0.012 mm²/ch |
| Total Power | 29.7 mW |
| Power / Channel | 19.34 µW/ch |
| AP Input-Referred Noise | 6.01 ± 0.39 µVrms |
| LFP Input-Referred Noise | 7.58 ± 0.79 µVrms |
| ADC SNDR | 64.92 dB |
Takeaway
This work provides a representative example of system-level optimization for high-density neural recording, balancing channel density, noise, power, area, and system scalability.
It also demonstrates that the conventional IA + MUX + SAR ADC architecture remains highly competitive for large-scale neural recording when carefully optimized.
For detailed discussions of the pixel architecture, instrumentation amplifier, dynamic-bias buffer, SAR ADC, and reference buffer design, please refer to the full review document.