gms | German Medical Science

Artificial Vision 2015

The International Symposium on Visual Prosthetics

27.11. - 28.11.2015, Aachen

Development of an implantable epiretinal vision prosthesis with integrated image acquisition -OPTOEPIRET

Meeting Abstract

  • Peter Walter - Department of Ophthalmology, RWTH Aachen, University Hospital Aachen, Germany
  • W. Mokwa - Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering I, RWTH Aachen University,Aachen, Germany
  • A. Grabmaier - Department for Electronic Devices and Circuits, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany
  • R. Kokozinski - Department for Electronic Devices and Circuits, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany
  • R. Viga - Department for Electronic Devices and Circuits, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

Artificial Vision 2015. Aachen, 27.-28.11.2015. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2016. Doc15artvis34

doi: 10.3205/15artvis34, urn:nbn:de:0183-15artvis344

Published: March 7, 2016

© 2016 Walter et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Outline

Text

Objective: The objective of this project is the development of an implantable epiretinal vision prosthesis with integrated image acquisition.

Concept: Retinal implants that are used in humans today have in common that due to the small size of the electrode array only a small area of the retina can be stimulated. So the field of vision is very small and corresponds to only about 9°. Recovery of the peripheral recognition cannot be achieved with these systems. However the peripheral function of the retina is indispensable necessary for autonomous movement in rooms. This capacity is dropped out first in retinitis pigmentosa patients. Whereas in the epiretinal approach an increase of the diameter of the stimulation array is still possible and by this an increase of the visual field the subretinal approach will be very limited due to the danger of separation of the retina or further surgery complications. Within the proposal “OPTOEPIRET” the epiretinal approach will be extended by an integrated epiretinal recording of the image produced by the eye lens onto the retina. For this a flexible stimulation array with a diameter of about 12 mm (which corresponds to a visual field of about 40°) based on a thin flexible polyimide substrate will be developed. The backside of this substrate is faced to the eye lens. Thinned and therefore flexible CMOS-camera-chips will be integrated having the same number of photodiodes as there are stimulation electrodes. The photodiode-array will now record the image produced by the eye-lens that would normally fall onto the retina. Integrated CMOS-circuitry converts this optical information in appropriate stimulation pulses that are forwarded to the electrodes on the front side of the substrate. By this approach no external image processing will be necessary.

Acknowledgement: This work is supported by the German research Council.