Devices

How the Utah array got from a University of Utah lab in 1989 to Bionic Technologies, Cyberkinetics, BrainGate and Blackrock. Includes the 1991 manufacturing paper: 100 silicon needles, 1.5 mm long, on a 4.2 mm substrate.

Device — Intracortical

Utah array: origins and commercial lineage

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Utah array · history · Normann · Cyberkinetics · BrainGate · Blackrock · intracortical · academic · human

Utah array: origins and commercial lineage

One-line verdict: The array behind most landmark human intracortical results has a short, traceable lineage: one university lab, two company sales, and a 1991 process paper that fixes its early geometry.

Quick tags: Recording · Intracortical · Human · Developed from 1989

Overview

What it is: The origin story of the Utah electrode array. The current-device entry is Utah Microelectrode Array.

Timeline (as reported):

  • 1989: Richard Normann of the University of Utah first developed the Utah Electrode Array (University of Utah news release, December 2004).
  • 1991: A manufacturing paper describes a silicon-based three-dimensional array for chronic intracortical stimulation. The substrate is 4.2 x 4.2 x 0.12 mm of monocrystalline silicon. From it project 100 conductive, electrically isolated silicon needles, each about 0.09 mm thick at the base and 1.5 mm long, with sharpened tips coated in platinum. The processes include thermomigration of 100 aluminum pads through an n-type silicon block. P. K. Campbell, Kelly E. Jones and Robert J. Huber are among the listed authors.
  • 2002: Normann’s spin-off Bionic Technologies, LLC, which he owned with Brian Hatt, was sold to Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc. (University of Utah news release).
  • June 2004: Cyberkinetics, which built the array into its BrainGate System, implanted a Utah array into a paralyzed human participant for the first time, who controlled a cursor on a screen (University of Utah news release). For the trial, see the 2006 BrainGate pilot entry.
  • 2008: Blackrock Neurotech was founded by Florian Solzbacher and Marcus Gerhardt (Blackrock “Our Story”). Blackrock’s page also says Blackrock Microsystems acquired Cyberkinetics, including the Utah array and other University of Utah interfaces. The page text read here gave no year for the acquisition.

Where the sources differ: The 2004 University of Utah release describes the array as a silicon chip a quarter-inch on each side with 100 electrodes in a 10-by-10 grid, implanted under the dura. The 1991 paper gives a 4.2 mm substrate. A quarter-inch is 6.35 mm. The sources do not explain the difference, and this entry does not pick one. The release also says a version with electrodes of varying lengths, from 0.5 to 1.5 mm, would be used on peripheral nerves.

Limits: This entry is lineage, not a current spec. The 1991 geometry may not match current commercial arrays.

Spec Card Grid

Geometry as published in 1991

  • Substrate: 4.2 x 4.2 x 0.12 mm silicon
  • Needles: 100, about 0.09 mm thick at base, about 1.5 mm long
  • Tip coating: platinum

Lineage

  • 1989: Normann, University of Utah
  • 2002: Bionic Technologies sold to Cyberkinetics
  • June 2004: first human implant by Cyberkinetics (BrainGate)
  • 2008: Blackrock Neurotech founded; Blackrock Microsystems later acquired Cyberkinetics (year not given in the source read)

Evidence and limits

  • Not covered here: the year of the Blackrock acquisition; current commercial array dimensions

References