Journal article
Electrical stimulation of retinal ganglion cells with diamond and the development of an all diamond retinal prosthesis
AE Hadjinicolaou, RT Leung, DJ Garrett, K Ganesan, K Fox, DAX Nayagam, MN Shivdasani, H Meffin, MR Ibbotson, S Prawer, BJ O'Brien
Biomaterials | Published : 2012
Abstract
Electronic retinal implants for the blind are already a market reality. A world wide effort is underway to find the technology that offers the best combination of performance and safety for potential patients. Our approach is to construct an epi-retinally targeted device entirely encapsulated in diamond to maximise longevity and biocompatibility. The stimulating array of our device comprises a monolith of electrically insulating diamond with thousands of hermetic, microscale nitrogen doped ultra-nanocrystalline diamond (N-UNCD) feedthroughs. Here we seek to establish whether the conducting diamond feedthroughs of the array can be used as stimulating electrodes without further modification wi..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
NICTA is funded by the Australian Government as represented by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Australian Research Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence program. The Bionics Institute acknowledges the support they receive from the Victorian Government through its Operational Infrastructure Program. The authors wish to thank Dr Lois Robblee for her advice and consult. This research was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC, Project Grant 585440) and the Australian Research Council (ARC) through its Special Research Initiative (SRI) in Bionic Vision Science and Technology grant to Bionic Vision Australia (BVA).