Graduate Defense: Mehdi Bandali

Dissertation Information

Title: Optical And Electrical Interfaces For Biological Structures

Program: Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor: Dr. Benjamin Johnson, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Members: Dr. Kurtis Cantley, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Dr. Nader Rafla, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Abstract

This dissertation presents novel solutions for recording optical and electrical data from biological structures. Chapter one discusses the 16×16 Time correlated SPAD image array I developed in a 180nm HV CMOS process for single-molecule localization super-resolution microscopy (SRM). This image array has a maximum frame rate of 80MHz and a fill factor of 17.4 %. To demonstrate SRM with this imaging array, we localized gold nanoparticle displacement at 40nm. Chapter two discusses the time domain and frequency domain characteristics of stimulation artifacts and potential strategies for canceling this interference on neural recording. Chapter three discusses an artifact-resilient neural recording front-end for local field potential (LFP) and spike rate sensing with rail-to-rail common mode (CM) and differential mode (DM) electrode DC offset (EDO) correction and instant artifact recovery. This front-end enables memoryless sampling for artifact mitigation using a continuous-time incremental sigma-delta (IΣ∆) topology. We integrated this front end with a bipolar arbitrary stimulation system on the chip to enable a bidirectional neural interface. Chapter four discusses an implantable Voltage-to-Time Converter (VTC) based analog front end for peripheral nerve sensing. This front end is designed to be equipped with a galvanic interface to wirelessly transmit data to a wearable. The data are encoded in time-domain pulses to relax the data rate requirement of the wireless link.