Preliminary study of the thermal impact of a microelectrode array implanted in the brain

One requirement of a chronically implantable, wireless neural interface device is the integration of electronic circuitry with the microelectrode array. Since the electronic IC dissipates a certain amount of power, it will affect the temperature in the tissues surrounding the implant site. In this paper, the thermal influence of an integrated, 3-dimensional Utah electrode array, to be implanted in the brain was investigated with simulations using the finite element method (FEM). A temperature increase in the brain tissue was predicted using preliminary simulations with simplified models. The model and method used in the simulations were verified by simple in vitro experiments.