A TECHNICAL PAPER PRESENTATION ON

SILICON RETINA USING VLSI TECHNOLOGY.

MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY
In

VERY LARGE SCALE INTEGRATION

Submitted by

SHAIK RAFFIQ 12211D5717 Email: raffiqs@live.com :raffiqs143@gmail.com

Padmasri Dr.B.V.Raju Institute of Technology Vishnupur, Narsapur, Medak District 502313. Email: info@bvrit.ac.in.

ABSTRACT
The most sensitive and important part of a biological structure is EYE.This is the only amazing organ which helps the biological organisms to visualise its thinking capability. The beautiful and colourful world around, is enjoyed by every creature, with the help of eyes. Can we ever imagine life without eye sight??? But its true that about 700,000 people in the developed world are diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD)each year, and 1.5 million people worldwide suffer from a disease called retinitis pigmentosa(RP). In both of these diseases, retinal cells, which convert light into nerve impulses at the back of the eye, gradually die. As is commonly seen in with retinitis pigmentosa, these patients all have severe narrowing of their visual fields down to a very small central circle, and all patients suffering with it are legally blind. But, the existing VLSI technology has brought an innovative revolution in the field of science. One of the brilliant inventions and discoveries to help the blind people, using VLSI technology, is responsible for the evolution of Artificial silicon retina (ASR). A silicon chip that faith fully mimics the neural circuitary of a real retina could lead to better bionic eyes for those with vision loss. The paper presented will give a clear idea about implantation of silicon retina into eye, and how it functions so that the diseased can regain their vision. The main objective to use silicon retina in biological field is to make the blind to visualise the things. This artificial silicon retina is a boon to man kind. But the disadvantage of this is it works only when the light focuses on it(day time). The probability of working of silicon retina in the absense of light is yet to be discovered by the scientists. The paper depicts the pictorial view of the diodes, retinal implantation of the silicon retina technology. The ASR is powered solely by incident light and does not require the use of external wires or batteries. When surgically implanted under the retina, in a location known as the sub retinal space, the ASR is designed to produce visual signals similar to those produced by the photoreceptor layer.

Rods Cones Ganglion Cells

INTRODUCTION:
How Our Retina Works: To understand how artificial vision is created, it's important to know about the role that the retina plays in how we see . Here is a simple explanation of what happens when you look at an object:

Scattered light from the object enters through the cornea. The light is projected onto the retina. The retina sends messages to the brain through the optic nerve. The brain interprets what the object is.

There are about 125 million rods and cones within the retina that act as the eye's photoreceptors. Rods are able to function in low light (they can detect a single photon) and can create black and white images without much light. Once enough light is available (for example, daylight or artificial light in a room), cones give us the ability to see color and detail of objects. Cones are responsible for allowing us to read this article, because they allow us to see at a high resolution. The information received by the rods and cones are then transmitted to the nearly 1 million ganglion cells in the retina. These ganglion cells interpret the messages from the rods and cones and send the information on to the brain by way of the optic nerve. Age old technique of implantation: The eye implant-a 3 millimeter -wide chip that would fit behind the retina could be a dramatic step above the currently available technique. For the device to work the microchip would have to be implanted behind the retina of a blind person. The patient would wear goggles mounted with a small video camera, which then sends the image to a wireless wallet-sized computer for prossesing. The computer trasmitts this information to an infrared LED screen on the goggles. The goggles reflect an infrared image into the eye and onto the retinal chip, stimulating photo diodes on the chip. The photo diodes mimic the

The anatomy of the eye The retina is complex in itself. This thin membrane at the back of the eye is a vital part of your ability to see. Its main function is to receive and transmit images to the brain. These are the three main types of cells in the eye that help perform this function:

retina cells by converting light into via nerve pulses to the brain. The goggles are trasperant so, if the user still has some vision , they can match that with new information- the device would cover about 10 degrees of the wearers field of vision. But the new silicon chip could remove the need for a camera and external computer altogether. The new surgical procedure: The microsurgical procedure starts with three tiny incisions in the white part of the subject's eye, each incision no larger than the diameter of a needle. Through these incisions, the surgeons insert a miniature cutting and vacuuming device that removes the gel in the middle of the eye and replaces it with saline. They then make a pinpoint opening in the retina through which they inject fluid to lift up a portion of the retina from the back of the eye, creating a small pocket in the "subretinal space" just wide enough to accommodate the ASR. The surgeons then enlarge the pocket opening and insert the implant into the subretinal space. Finally, they reseal the retina over the ASR, insert air into the middle of the eye to gently push the retina back down over the device, and close the incisions. Over a period of 1 week the air bubble is resorbed and replaced by fluids created within the eye. The use of the subretinal space to hold a device that artificially stimulates the retina seems a logical step in replacing the loss of photoreceptor cells of the retina.The circuit was built

electrical signals, which are then transmitted by cells in the inner retina with the mammalian retina as its blueprint. The chip contains light sensors and circuitry that functions in much the same way as nerves in a real retina they automatically filter the mass of visual data collected by the eye to leave only what the brain uses to build a picture of the world. The ASR chip contains approximately 5,000 microscopic solar cells that convert light into electrical impulses. The purpose of the chip is to replace damaged photoreceptors, the "light-sensing" cells of the eye, which normally convert light into electrical signals within the retina. The chip could be embedded directly into the eye and connected to the nerves that carry signals to the brain's visual cortex. The silicon chip: To make the chip, the medical team first created a model of how light-sensitive neurons and other nerve cells in the retina connect to process light. They made a silicon version using manufacturing techniques already employed in the computer chip industry. Their chip measures 3.5 x 3.3 millimetres and contains 5760 silicon phototransistors, which take the place of light-sensitive neurons in a living retina. These are connected up to 3600 transistors, which mimic the nerve cells that process light information and pass it on to the brain for higher processing. There are 13 different types of transistor, each with slightly different performance,

mimicking different types of actual nerve cells.

is the full size of the Artificial Silicon Retina. Today, such a device is very close to becoming available to the millions of people who have lost their vision to retinal disease. In fact, there are at least two silicon microchip devices that are being developed, and one has already been implanted in the eyes of three blind patients. The concept for both devices is similar, with each being: Small enough to be implanted in the eye. Supplied with a continuous source of power Biocompatible with the surrounding eye tissue. Perhaps the most promising of these two silicon devices is the artificial silicon retina (ASR) developed by optobionics As in the picture at the top of this page the ASR is an extremely tiny device, smaller than the surface of a pencil eraser. It has a diameter of just 2 mm (.078 inch) and is thinner than a human hair. There is good reason for its microscopic size. In order for an artificial retina to work it has to be small enough so that doctors can transplant it in the eye without damaging the other structures within the eye. Description: The ASR contains about 3,500 microscopic solar cells that are able to convert light into electrical pulses, mimicking the function of cones and rods. To implant this device into the eye, surgeons make three tiny incisions. Through these incisions, the surgeons introduce a miniature cutting and vacuuming device that removes the gel in the middle of the

Changing scene: The mammalian brain only receives new information from the eyes when something in a scene changes. This cuts down on the volume of information sent to the brain but is enough for it to work out what is happening in the world. The retina chip performs in the same way. The lowest image (right) shows how this allows it to extract useful data from a moving face. Creating Artificial Sight: The current path that scientists are taking to create artificial vision received a jolt in 1988, when Dr. Mark Humayun demonstrated that a blind person could be made to see light by stimulating the nerve ganglia behind the retina with an electrical current. This test proved that the nerves behind the retina still functioned even when the retina had degenerated. Based on this information, scientists set out to create a device that could translate images and electrical pulses that could restore vision.

The dot above the date on this penny

eye and replaces it with saline. Next, a pinpoint opening is made in the How Artificial Vision Will Work retina through which they inject fluid to lift up a portion of the retina from the back of the eye, which creates a small pocket in the subretinal space for the device to fit in. The retina is then resealed over the ASR.

Photo courtesy Optobionics Only 2 mm in diameter and thinner than a human hair, this silicon chip may restore sight. Here we can see where the ASR is placed between the outer and inner retinal layers. For any microchip to work it needs power, and the amazing thing about the ASR is that it receives all of its needed power from the light entering the eye. Light that enters the eye is directed at the retina. This means that with the ASR implant placed behind the retina, receives all of the light entering the eye. This solar energy eliminates the need for any wires, batteries or other secondary devices to supply power. Even if we wear eyeglasses, our eyes are functioning at a level good enough to recognize the small letters on the page. Text on most computer screens is about 3 millimeters tall and 2 mm wide ( .12 X .08 inches). As we read this one sentence, we are probably oblivious to the thousands of pieces of visual information that our eyes are gathering each second. Just in the retina alone, there are millions of cells at work right now acting as photoreceptors reacting to light, similar to how a camera works to capture images on film.

using visual feedback provided by subjects with normal vision. The micro photodiodes are designed to convert the light energy from images to electrical impulses that stimulate the remaining functional retinal cells in patients with RP and AMD. Surgically implanted under the retina, the ASR is designed to produce visual signals similar to those produced by the eye's natural photoreceptor layer. From their sub retinal location, the ASR's photoelectric signals can induce artificial biological visual signals in the remaining functional retinal cells. These signals are processed and sent to the brain via the optic nerve. The researchers believe that the device is unique because it functions much like a solar cell, with no external connections and no power supply. The device is powered only by lightthat enters the eye.

Individual micro photodiode located on an artificial silicon retina. Other applications of silicon retina: Walking robots: The silicon retina could be used to give small robots a better understanding of their visual environment. An analog silicon retina chip is used for control of the autonomous walking robot. The output of the analog silicon retina used in this study is sufficiently accurate under natural illumination. The edge of the image was obtained with the zerocrossing detector circuit using the output of the chip in real-time. The transfer of the image from a silicon retina to a computer in the robot was executed asynchronously using a RAM. Smart sensors: The electronic retina could also be used in smart sensors and remote monitoring cameras, where its ability to sort out important information would allow reduced amounts of data to be analyzed, transmitted and stored.

"LEARNING RETINA" WOULD ALLOW FINE-TUNING OF IMPLANTS The learning Retinal Encoder concept is based on using tunable receptive-field (RF) filters to stimulate the spatial and temporal receptive field properties of the retinal ganglion cells. Tuning the RF filters would entail generating RE modification signals to adjust specific parameters of the tunable filters so that the patient's perception of a visual stimulus most accurately represents the actual visual pattern. Although tuning the RF filters must be based on regained perceptions of blind subjects, the researchers recently proposed a method of pertaining the learning retina encoder

Tracking the objects: The electronic retina processes the larger amount of data that makes up an image in order to transmit a smaller amount of key information. The silicon retina provides information about the edges of images rather than a whole picture. Edge information is usually sufficient for detecting and tracking objects.

CONCLUSION:
Silicon retina has became the emerging industry in the field of VLSI technology. The photo diodes , photo receptors, the rods and cones used for the artificial visiual perception in silicon retina are the major contributions from electronics industry.the use of silicon retina is not only confined to the biological field, but also, many innovative applications like walking robots, spatial sensors, traffic sensors etc are emerging out. The silicon retina helped blind people to rebuild their vision upto certain extent, so that they could visualise this world, which wasnt possible before. What would be the better contribution, than to make blind to see, for silicon retina using VLSI tecnology????????