A Photovoltaic-Driven and Energy-Autonomous CMOS Implantable Sensor

An energy-autonomous, photovoltaic (PV)-driven and MRI-compatible CMOS implantable sensor is presented. On-chip P+/N-well diode arrays are used as CMOS-compatible PV cells to harvest mu W's of power from the light that penetrates into the tissue. In this 2.5 mm x 2.5 mm sub-mu W integrated system, the in-vivo physiological signals are first measured by using a subthreshold ring oscillator-based sensor, the acquired data is then modulated into a frequency-shift keying (FSK) signal, and finally transmitted neuromorphically to the skin surface by using a pair of polarized electrodes.