Ultra-low power "system-on-a-chip" integrated circuit for fieldable neurobiological sensing

PsiKick will develop a complete system-on-chip (SoC) solution for use in a truly fieldable, laboratory-grade EEG system that can achieve a total average power draw on the order of 20 μW. This system includes power management and interfacing to energy harvesters, EEG signal amplification and digitizing, digital signal processing, local instruction and data memory, and wireless communication. This SoC, combined with external COTS passives, electrodes, and energy harvesters, will be suitable for integrating into a portable form factor of a helmet and will be capable of achieving longer than a week of lifetime. Our technical approach systematically develops the elements required to build an SoC including all the electronics for a fieldable laboratory grade EEG monitoring system. PsiKick will develop a complete schematic-level design for the SoC that leverages the ultra-low power wireless platform developed at PsiKick based on a demonstrated wireless ECG monitor powered exclusively from body heat with no battery in the system. PsiKick will also work closely with ARL to refine the specifications for the analog front-end, and to leverage ARLs EEG research with the goal of implementing hardware accelerators and general DSP on the SoC for detection of abnormalities.