800nW 43nV/√Hz neural recording amplifier with enhanced noise efficiency factor

Abstract

Advances in neuroscience research and clinical applications have increasingly called for the low-power low-noise simultaneous recording of neural signals from a large number of electrodes. The neural interface IC is one of the essential blocks to capture the weak neural signals. Presented is an energy-efficient low-noise neural recording amplifier with enhanced noise efficiency factor (NEF) for neural recording systems. Based on the conventional capacitive feedback and pseudo-resistor structure, the fully differential neural amplifier employs the current-reuse technique to achieve low noise and high current efficiency, consuming 800nA at 1V power supply. The measured thermal noise floor is 43nV/√Hz and the input-referred noise is 5.71 μ V rms when integrated from 1Hz to 50kHz, leading to an NEF of 2.59. The entire neural amplifier has been fabricated using a 0.18m CMOS technology, occupying an area of 0.05mm 2. © 2012 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.