A groundbreaking brain implant, dubbed the Biological Interface System to Cortex (BISC), is poised to redefine human-computer interaction and unlock new therapeutic avenues for a spectrum of neurological conditions, including epilepsy, spinal cord injuries, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), stroke, and blindness. This revolutionary device, born from a collaborative effort between Columbia University, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania, establishes a minimally invasive, ultra-high-bandwidth communication pathway directly to the brain, holding immense promise for seizure control and the restoration of motor, speech, and visual functions.

The remarkable potential of BISC lies in its unprecedented combination of minuscule size and exceptional data transmission speeds. At its core is a single silicon chip, meticulously engineered to create a wireless, high-bandwidth link between neural activity and external computational systems. This innovative architecture, detailed in a study published on December 8th in Nature Electronics, comprises the chip-based implant, a wearable external "relay station," and the sophisticated software required to operate the entire platform. Ken Shepard, Lau Family Professor of Electrical Engineering, professor of biomedical engineering, and professor of neurological sciences at Columbia University, who spearheaded the engineering efforts, highlighted the stark contrast between BISC and existing implantable systems. "Most implantable systems are built around a canister of electronics that occupies enormous volumes of space inside the body," Shepard explained. "Our implant is a single integrated circuit chip that is so thin that it can slide into the space between the brain and the skull, resting on the brain like a piece of wet tissue paper." This "paper-thin" characteristic significantly reduces the invasiveness and potential for tissue damage associated with current neurotechnologies.

Shepard’s collaboration with Andreas S. Tolias, PhD, professor at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University and co-founding director of the Enigma Project, was instrumental in assessing BISC’s decoding capabilities. Tolias’s extensive expertise in training artificial intelligence (AI) systems on large-scale neural recordings, including those generated by BISC, provided crucial insights into the implant’s efficacy. "BISC turns the cortical surface into an effective portal, delivering high-bandwidth, minimally invasive read-write communication with AI and external devices," Tolias stated. "Its single-chip scalability paves the way for adaptive neuroprosthetics and brain-AI interfaces to treat many neuropsychiatric disorders, such as epilepsy." The ability of BISC to transform the brain’s cortex into a high-bandwidth interface opens up unprecedented possibilities for direct neural communication.

Dr. Brett Youngerman, assistant professor of neurological surgery at Columbia University and a neurosurgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, served as the project’s primary clinical collaborator. His perspective underscores the transformative impact of this technology. "This high-resolution, high-data-throughput device has the potential to revolutionize the management of neurological conditions from epilepsy to paralysis," Dr. Youngerman asserted. He, along with Shepard and Dr. Catherine Schevon, an epilepsy neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, recently secured a National Institutes of Health grant to investigate BISC’s application in treating drug-resistant epilepsy. "The key to effective brain-computer interface devices is to maximize the information flow to and from the brain, while making the device as minimally invasive in its surgical implantation as possible. BISC surpasses previous technology on both fronts," Youngerman added, emphasizing the dual advancements in data capacity and surgical simplicity.

The technological leap facilitated by BISC is deeply rooted in advancements in semiconductor fabrication. "Semiconductor technology has made this possible, allowing the computing power of room-sized computers to now fit in your pocket," Shepard observed. "We are now doing the same for medical implantables, allowing complex electronics to exist in the body while taking up almost no space." This analogy effectively captures the paradigm shift from bulky, conventional implantable electronics to the highly integrated and miniaturized nature of BISC.

Next-Generation BCI Engineering: A Paradigm Shift in Implant Design

Traditional brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) operate by intercepting the electrical signals neurons use for communication. However, current medical-grade BCIs typically necessitate multiple discrete microelectronic components, such as amplifiers, data converters, and radio transmitters. These components are usually housed within a relatively large implanted canister, requiring either the removal of a portion of the skull or implantation in another body part, with wires extending to the brain. This approach is not only invasive but also limits the bandwidth and precision of neural communication.

BISC fundamentally rethinks this paradigm by integrating all necessary components onto a single complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit. This chip has been meticulously thinned to an astonishing 50 micrometers, occupying less than 1/1000th of the volume of a standard implant. With a total volume of approximately 3 cubic millimeters, the flexible chip is designed to conform to the intricate contours of the brain’s surface. This advanced micro-electrocorticography (µECoG) device is densely packed with an impressive 65,536 electrodes, capable of handling 1,024 recording channels and 16,384 stimulation channels. The utilization of established semiconductor industry manufacturing methods ensures that BISC is readily scalable for mass production, a crucial factor for widespread clinical adoption.

The integrated chip ingeniously incorporates a radio transceiver, a wireless power circuit, digital control electronics, power management systems, data converters, and the analog components essential for both recording and stimulating neural activity. The external relay station acts as a vital intermediary, providing power and facilitating data communication via a custom ultrawideband radio link that achieves a remarkable 100 Mbps throughput – an order of magnitude higher than any other wireless BCI currently available. Operating seamlessly as an 802.11 WiFi device, the relay station effectively bridges the implant to any computer, enabling real-time data streaming and control.

Furthermore, BISC is equipped with its own specialized instruction set and a comprehensive software environment, effectively functioning as a dedicated computing system for brain interfaces. The exceptionally high-bandwidth recording capabilities demonstrated in this study allow for the processing of brain signals by cutting-edge machine-learning and deep-learning algorithms. These advanced algorithms can decipher complex intentions, perceptual experiences, and dynamic brain states with unprecedented accuracy. "By integrating everything on one piece of silicon, we’ve shown how brain interfaces can become smaller, safer, and dramatically more powerful," Shepard emphasized.

Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication: The Foundation of Miniaturization

The intricate fabrication of the BISC implant relies on TSMC’s 0.13-µm Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) technology. This sophisticated manufacturing process merges three distinct semiconductor technologies onto a single chip, enabling the creation of highly efficient mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs). This synergy allows for the seamless integration of digital logic (from CMOS), high-current and high-voltage analog functions (from bipolar and DMOS transistors), and power devices (from DMOS), all of which are critical for BISC’s exceptional performance and miniaturization.

Moving From the Lab Toward Clinical Use: Bridging the Gap

The critical transition from laboratory development to real-world medical application has been a key focus for Shepard’s group. They have partnered with Dr. Youngerman at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center to develop and refine surgical procedures for the safe implantation of the thin device in preclinical models. These studies have confirmed the device’s ability to produce high-quality, stable neural recordings. Short-term intraoperative studies in human patients are already underway, marking a significant milestone in the path toward clinical use.

"These initial studies give us invaluable data about how the device performs in a real surgical setting," Dr. Youngerman remarked. "The implants can be inserted through a minimally invasive incision in the skull and slid directly onto the surface of the brain in the subdural space. The paper-thin form factor and lack of brain-penetrating electrodes or wires tethering the implant to the skull minimize tissue reactivity and signal degradation over time." This minimally invasive approach is crucial for long-term implant viability and patient comfort.

Extensive preclinical work in the motor and visual cortices has been conducted in collaboration with Dr. Tolias and Bijan Pesaran, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Both are recognized leaders in computational and systems neuroscience, bringing invaluable expertise to the project. "The extreme miniaturization by BISC is very exciting as a platform for new generations of implantable technologies that also interface with the brain with other modalities such as light and sound," Pesaran commented, hinting at future multimodal neural interfaces.

The development of BISC was made possible through the Neural Engineering System Design program of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It leverages Columbia University’s profound expertise in microelectronics, the cutting-edge neuroscience programs at Stanford and Penn, and the renowned surgical capabilities of NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Commercial Development and Future AI Integration: Paving the Way for Innovation

To accelerate the technology’s journey toward practical application, researchers at Columbia and Stanford have founded Kampto Neurotech. This startup, established by Dr. Nanyu Zeng, a lead engineer on the project and a Columbia electrical engineering alumnus, is currently producing research-ready versions of the BISC chip and actively seeking funding to prepare the system for human patient trials. "This is a fundamentally different way of building BCI devices," Zeng stated. "In this way, BISC has technological capabilities that exceed those of competing devices by many orders of magnitude."

As artificial intelligence continues its rapid advancement, BCIs are emerging as pivotal technologies, not only for restoring lost abilities in individuals with neurological disorders but also for potentially enhancing normal human function through direct brain-to-computer communication. "By combining ultra-high resolution neural recording with fully wireless operation, and pairing that with advanced decoding and stimulation algorithms, we are moving toward a future where the brain and AI systems can interact seamlessly — not just for research, but for human benefit," Shepard concluded. "This could change how we treat brain disorders, how we interface with machines, and ultimately how humans engage with AI." The BISC implant represents a significant leap forward, promising a future where the boundaries between human cognition and artificial intelligence are increasingly blurred for the betterment of humanity.