Neural Noise- BISC is an ultra-thin neural implant that provides a high-bandwidth wireless link between the brain and computers.1
- The single-chip design packs tens of thousands of electrodes.1
- It supports advanced AI models for decoding movement, perception, and intent in real time.1
- The implant can be inserted through a small skull opening and remains stable while capturing detailed neural activity.1
- Potential clinical applications include epilepsy, paralysis, and blindness.1 1
Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)
- BISC (Biological/Bioelectronic Interface System to Cortex) is detailed in Nature Electronics (published Dec 8, 2025; Jung, Zeng, Fabbri et al.; Nat Electron 8, 1272–1288), a collaboration of Columbia University, NewYork-Presbyterian, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania.23
- The entire system sits on a single CMOS integrated circuit thinned to 50 µm with a total processed volume of about 3–7 mm³, occupying less than 1/1000th the volume of a conventional canister-based implant and flexible enough to conform to the cortical surface in the subdural space.34
- The micro-electrocorticography (µECoG) array contains 65,536 electrodes (a 256 × 256 grid) with 16,384 stimulation channels, from which a selectable subset of up to 1,024 channels can be recorded simultaneously.34
- On a single chip it integrates the electrode array, front-end analog electronics, data converters, an on-chip digital controller, power management, wireless power circuitry and an RF transceiver, eliminating the separate amplifiers, converters and radios of current medical-grade BCIs.24
- An external wearable “relay station” powers the implant and communicates over a custom ultrawideband radio link reaching 100 Mbps, reported as at least 100× higher throughput than any other wireless BCI, and operates as an 802.11 WiFi bridge to any computer.2
- The chip was fabricated in TSMC’s 0.13-µm Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process, combining CMOS digital logic with high-voltage/high-current bipolar and DMOS devices for recording and stimulation, and is amenable to large-scale semiconductor manufacturing.2
- Chronic in-vivo validation demonstrated stable, reliable recordings for up to two weeks in pigs and up to two months in behaving non-human primates across somatosensory, motor and visual cortices; short-term intraoperative studies in human patients are already underway.4
- The team reported the architecture achieves better than 400× improvement in volumetric efficiency (simultaneous channels per implant volume) over the closest competing wireless BCI, and an NIH grant has been secured to apply BISC to drug-resistant epilepsy.24
- The technology is being commercialized through Kampto Neurotech, a startup founded by Columbia engineer Nanyu Zeng, and originated under DARPA’s Neural Engineering System Design program; targeted clinical applications include epilepsy, paralysis, spinal cord injury, stroke and blindness.2