Flexible ultrasound-induced retinal stimulating piezo-arrays for biomimetic visual prostheses

Laiming Jiang; Gengxi Lu; Yushun Zeng; Yizhe Sun; Haochen Kang; James Burford; Chen Gong; Mark S Humayun; Yong Chen; Qifa Zhou

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31599-4

Flexible ultrasound-induced retinal stimulating piezo-arrays for biomimetic visual prostheses

Nat Commun. 2022 Jul 4;13(1):3853. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31599-4.

Authors

Laiming Jiang^#^{1

2

3}, Gengxi Lu^#^{4

5}, Yushun Zeng^#^{4

5}, Yizhe Sun⁵, Haochen Kang⁵, James Burford⁴, Chen Gong^{4

5}, Mark S Humayun^{4

5

6}, Yong Chen⁷, Qifa Zhou^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Roski Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA. laiming_jiang@foxmail.com.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. laiming_jiang@foxmail.com.
³ Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. laiming_jiang@foxmail.com.
⁴ Roski Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA.
⁵ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
⁶ Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
⁷ Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. yongchen@usc.edu.
⁸ Roski Eye Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA. qifazhou@usc.edu.
⁹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. qifazhou@usc.edu.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Electronic visual prostheses, or biomimetic eyes, have shown the feasibility of restoring functional vision in the blind through electrical pulses to initiate neural responses artificially. However, existing visual prostheses predominantly use wired connections or electromagnetic waves for powering and data telemetry, which raises safety concerns or couples inefficiently to miniaturized implant units. Here, we present a flexible ultrasound-induced retinal stimulating piezo-array that can offer an alternative wireless artificial retinal prosthesis approach for evoking visual percepts in blind individuals. The device integrates a two-dimensional piezo-array with 32-pixel stimulating electrodes in a flexible printed circuit board. Each piezo-element can be ultrasonically and individually activated, thus, spatially reconfigurable electronic patterns can be dynamically applied via programmable ultrasound beamlines. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the ultrasound-induced pattern reconstruction in ex vivo murine retinal tissue, showing the potential of this approach to restore functional, life-enhancing vision in people living with blindness.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Biomimetics
Blindness / therapy
Humans
Mice
Retina / diagnostic imaging
Retina / physiology
Retina / surgery
Vision, Ocular
Visual Prosthesis*

Grants and funding

R01 EY030126/EY/NEI NIH HHS/United States