The Neuropixels Platform

Barun Dutta

Chief Scientist of Semiconductor Technology and Systems, IMEC

Bio: Barun Dutta is Chief Scientist of Semiconductor Technology and Systems (STS) at imec where he has been since 2010, and serves as a Program Director, initiating and leading various new R&D programs semiconductor materials and device technology and more recently in Neurotechnology.  He conceived and has led the Neuropixels program at imec since its inception. As a venture capitalist and General Partner at Sevin Rosen-Alta Berkeley, between 1998-2010, he worked with over 20 immensely successful founding teams in semiconductors and networking systems, incubating, mentoring, and/or as a Board Member. He spent the first decade of his career at Bellcore/Bell Labs and as an assignee at imec. He was educated at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. 

Abstract: Recent advances in integration of CMOS and MEMS on a 200/300mm platform, has enabled the realization of active integrated neural devices, and increased routine extracellular electrophysiology recording capability and capacity from dozens to thousands of neurons. Applying “a active CMOS-MEMS scaling platform approach”, the Neuropixels platforms, will enable next generation of systems to visualize 10’s to 100’s of thousand neurons.

I will review our work to develop a very high channel count electrophysiology probe device: “the Neuropixels probe”, and the associated system and the prospect for another 10-50X increase \in neural recording capacity, and address progress towards “large scale recording form large brains”.

In addition, I will show early results and demonstrating the power of a CMOS integrated platform to co-integrate different modalities such as integrated optics/photonics and show exploratory results in a specific neuro-modulation application and a roadmap to address different modulation options.

Furthermore, I will highlight the power of the Neuropixels ecosystem which is a new way to enable collaborative science between advanced tool builders and scientists, with transformational impact.