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SEMINAR ON
ARTIFICIAL RETINA USING THIN-FILM TRANSISTORS
DRIVEN BY WIRELESS POWER SUPPLY
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Cause of Blindness

Damage to:

BLINDNESS
Clear structures in the eye, that
allow the light to pass through.

The nerves within the eye.

The Optic nerve

Brain
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The Retina
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Diseases of Eye
Retinitis Pigmentosa Macular Degeneration

Hereditary genetic disease. Genetically related.

Degeneration of the retina Cones in macula region
Gradually progress towards center degenerate.
of eye. Loss or damage of central vision.
Spares the foveal region. Common among aged people.
Tunnel vision results. Peripheral retina spared.
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Artificial Thin-Film Transistor Retina

Recovers the sight sense for sight-handicapped people.

Electronic Photo devices and circuits substitutes deteriorated

photoreceptor cells.

Implanted inside the eyes.

Implanting classified into two types: Epiretinal implant and

Subretinal implant .

Thin-Film Transistors, fabricated on transparent and flexible

substrates.
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Artificial Thin-Film Transistor Retina

Implantable microelectronic retinal prostheses

Externally worn digital camera which samples the wearers visual

environment.

The first application of an implantable stimulator for vision restoration was

developed by Dr S. Brindley and Lewin in 1968.
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Retinal Implantation
Epiretinal implant
They sit in the inner surface of the retina.

They bypass a large portion of the retina.

Provides visual perception to individuals

The implants receive input from a

camera

Electrodes from the implants electrically

stimulate the ganglion cells and axons at
the start of the optic nerve.
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Retinal Implantation
Subretinal implant
Subretinal implants sit on the outer
surface of the retina.

Directly stimulates the retinal cells

Replace damaged rods and cones by

Silicon plate carrying 1000s of light-
sensitive micro photodiodes each
with a stimulation electrode.

Light from image activates the micro

photodiodes, the electrodes inject
currents into the neural cells.
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Retinal Implantation

The epiretinal implant have high image resolutions.

Stimulus signal can be directly conducted to neuron cells .
Here living retinas are not seriously damaged.
The input to the Epiretinal Implant is more easily controlled
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Fabrication of Thin-Film Transistor

Optical microscopic image of the 100 ppi
organic thin-film transistor
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Fabrication of Thin-Film Transistor

Low temperature poly-Si TFTs have been developed.

For integrated drivers, CMOS configurations are used.
High speed operation due to parasitic capacitance in Self-Aligned TFTs
ion implantation is one of the key factors in fabricating such as TFTs
and CMOS configurations.

ION Doping Techniques

5% PH3. or 5% B2H6 diluted by hydrogen is used for the doping gas .
RF plasma is formed in the chamber by RF power with a frequency of
13.56 MHz
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Fabrication of Thin-Film Transistor

Ions from discharged gas are

accelerated by an extraction
electrode and an acceleration
electrode.
Then implanted into the substrate.
Impurities can be implanted over
the entire 300 mm square substrate.
Maximum accelerating voltage of
over 110 KeV which is sufficient
for implanting impurities through
the 150nm SiO2 gate insulator.
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Self Aligned structure and non (S/A) TFT

characteristics
Parasitic capacitance between the
gate electrode and source and
drain regions of a S/A TFT is
estimated to be only about 2 -5 %
that of a non-S/A TFT

High speed operation can be

expected.
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Self Aligned structure and non (S/A) TFT

characteristics
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Fabrication of Thin-Film Transistor

New Masking Technique

An SiO2 buffer layer is deposited on the glass substrate

Then, pad poly-Si patterns are formed for source and drain regions

A 25 nm channel poly-Si layer is deposited by low pressure chemical vapor

deposition (LPCVD) at 600 oC.

Then a 150 nm SiO2 gate insulator is deposited by electron cyclotron

resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) at 100 oC in a vacuum.
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Fabrication of Thin-Film Transistor

Then, a Cr film is deposited at 180 oC.

First, only p-channel gate electrodes are formed.
The next step is to form source and drain regions of p-channel TFTs
by the new I/D technique.
Boron ions are implanted through the gate insulator with a dose of
of 80 keV.
N-channel gate electrodes are also formed and phosphorus ions are
implanted with a dose of 110 keV by the new I/D technique
Impurities are activated by a XeCl excimer laser.
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p/i/n Thin-Film Photo Transistor

They are used in photo sensor applications.

Here thin-film photo devices are integrated with low-temperature poly-Si

thin-film transistors.
The p/i/n TFPT must be illuminated from the backside of the glass
substrate because the control electrode is usually formed using an opaque
metal film
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Electrooptical Measurement

White light from a halogen lamp is reflected by a triangular prism and

irradiated through the glass substrates to the back surfaces of the p/i/n TFPT.

Although the light from a halogen lamp includes the light from 400 to 750 nm
with a peak around 600 nm and is therefore reddish despite a built-in infrared
filter
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Electrooptical characteristic
First, it is found that the dark
current, Idetect when Lphoto = 0, is
sufficiently small except when Vctrl
and Vapply are large because the
p/i and i/n junctions steadily
endure the reverse bias.

Next, Idetect increases as Lphoto

increases.

Finally, Idetect becomes maximal

when Vctrl Vapply

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WIRELESS POWER SUPPLY USING INDUCTIVE

COUPLING

Inductive coupling of magnetic field

Electrical energy can be easily converted to magnetic energy and back

using conductive coil

Traditionally, a pair of inductive coils are used

The secondary coil can be located within the eye and the primary coil
external to the eye.

Problems:
first problem is difficulty in placing a large receive coil inside the eye.

complicated surgical procedure

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WIRELESS POWER SUPPLY USING INDUCTIVE

COUPLING

Major challenge in implementing a wireless power

Large separation between the coils
Constant relative motion between the primary and secondary coils.
Reduction in power transfer to the device.

In order to overcome these problems,

Use of an intermediate link

The secondary coil is located under the sclera (eye wall) and is
connected to the implanted device via electrical wires which are
embedded under the wall of the eye.

The transmit coil is placed at the back of the ear.

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WIRELESS POWER SUPPLY USING INDUCTIVE

COUPLING

Intermediate coils are positioned

with one end on the sclera over the
receive coil and the other end under
the skin beneath the transmit coil.

Immunity to variation in coupling

due to rapid movements of the eye
as relative motion between adjacent
coils is restricted.

To increase the power transfer

efficiency compared to a one-pair
coil system.
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Working
Vpp of the ac voltage source is 10 V, and the frequency is 34 kHz, which is
a resonance frequency

The material of the induction coil is an enameled copper wire, the diameter
is 1.8 cm, and the winding number is 370 times.

The power receiver also consists of an induction coil, which is the

same as the power transmitter and located face to face.

The diode bridge rectifies the ac voltage to the dc voltage, and the
Zener diodes regulate the voltage value.

The supply system is in principle very simple to implant it into

human eyeballs
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Working
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ARTIFICIAL RETINA USING THIN-FILM

TRANSISTORS

Operation
It uses the same fabrication processes as conventional poly-Si TFTs and
encapsulated using SiO2, in order to perform in corrosive environments.
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ARTIFICIAL RETINA USING THIN-FILM

TRANSISTORS
The retina array includes matrix-like multiple retina pixels.

The photo transistor is optimized to achieve high efficiency

The photosensitivity of the reverse-biased p/i/n poly-Si phototransistor is

150 pA at 1000 lx for white light and proper values for all visible color
lights.

The field effect mobility and the threshold voltage of the n-type and p-type
poly-Si TFT were 93 cm2 V -1s-1 , 3.6 V, 47 cm2 V -1s-1 and -2.9 V,
respectively.

First, the photo transistors perceive the irradiated light (Lphoto) and induce
the photo-induced current (Iphoto).
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ARTIFICIAL RETINA USING THIN-FILM

TRANSISTORS

Next, the current mirror amplifies Iphoto to the mirror current (Imirror).
Finally, the load resistance converts Imirror to the output voltage (Vout).
Consequently, the retina pixels irradiated with bright light output a higher
Vout
Whereas the retina pixels irradiated with darker light output a lower Vout.
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CONCLUSION

A pulse signal generator appropriate as photorecepter cells for

implementation.

Shows the feasibility to implant the artificial retina into human

eyeballs
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References
Yuta Miura, Tomohisa Hachida, and Mutsumi Kimura, Member, IEEE , Artificial Retina
Using Thin-Film Transistors Driven by Wireless Power Supply IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL,
VOL. 11, NO. 7, JULY 2011.

M. Kimura, Y. Miura, T. Ogura, S. Ohno, T. Hachida, Y. Nishizaki, T. Yamashita, and T.Shima,

Device characterization of p/i/n thin-film phototransistor for photosensor applications, IEEE
Electron Device Lett., vol. 31, no. 9, pp. 984986, 2010.

Satoshi Inoue, Minoru Matsuo, Tsutomu Hashizume, Hideto Ishiguro, Takashi Nakazawa, and
Hiroyuki Ohshima, LOW TEMPERATURE CMOS SELF-ALIQNED POLY-Si TFTS AND
CIRCUIT SCHEME UTILIZING NEW ION DOPING AND MASKING TECHNIQUE

David C. Ng, Chris E. Williams, Penny J. Allen, Shun Bai, Clive S. Boyd, Hamish Meffin,
Mark E. Halpern, and Efstratios Skafidas wireless power delivery for retinal prosthesis ,
33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS Boston, Massachusetts USA, August
30 - September 3, 2011

T. Tokuda, K. Hiyama, S. Sawamura, K. Sasagawa, Y. Terasawa, K. Nishida, Y.Kitaguchi, T.

Fujikado, Y. Tano, and J. Ohta, CMOS-based multichip networked flexible retinal stimulator
designed for image-based retinal prosthesis, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 56, no. 11,
pp. 25772585, 2009.
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Tomohisa Hachida received the B.E. degree in electronics and

informatics from Ryukoku University, Otsu, Japan, in 2009.He had
been working on research and development of artificial retinas
using thin-film transistors (TFTs).

Mutsumi Kimura (M10) received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in

physical engineering from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1989 and
1991, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and electric
engineering from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and
Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 2001. He has been working on thin-
film transistor (TFT) characteristic analysis, TFT simulator
development, TFT-OLED development, and their advanced
applications.

Yuta Miura received the B.E. degree in electronics

and informatics from Ryukoku University, Otsu, Japan, in 2010.
He had been working on research and development of artificial
retinas using thin-film transistors (TFTs). He is currently a
graduate student at Nara Institute of Science and Technology,
Ikoma, Japan.
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