Vertically integrated photo junction-field-effect transistor pixels for retinal prosthesis

Samir Damle; Yu-Hsin Liu; Shaurya Arya; Nicholas W Oesch; Yu-Hwa Lo

doi:10.1364/BOE.11.000055

Vertically integrated photo junction-field-effect transistor pixels for retinal prosthesis

Biomed Opt Express. 2019 Dec 4;11(1):55-67. doi: 10.1364/BOE.11.000055. eCollection 2020 Jan 1.

Authors

Samir Damle¹, Yu-Hsin Liu², Shaurya Arya³, Nicholas W Oesch^{4

5}, Yu-Hwa Lo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
² Nanovision Biosciences, Inc., 3366 N. Torrey Pines Court, Suite 220, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
³ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, Engineer Ln, La Jolla, CA 92161, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, CA 92093, USA.
⁵ Jacobs Retina Center at Shiley Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Diego, 9415 Campus Point Drive San Diego, CA 92093, USA.

Abstract

Optoelectronic retinal prostheses transduce light into electrical current for neural stimulation. We introduce a novel optoelectronic pixel architecture consisting of a vertically integrated photo junction-field-effect transistor (Photo-JFET) and neural stimulating electrode. Experimental measurements demonstrate that optically addressed Photo-JFET pixels utilize phototransistive gain to produce a broad range of neural stimulation current and can effectively stimulate retinal neurons in vitro. The compact nature of the Photo-JFET pixel can enable high resolution retinal prostheses with the smallest reported optoelectronic pixel size to help restore high visual acuity in patients with degenerative retinal diseases.

Grants and funding

R01 EY029259/EY/NEI NIH HHS/United States