Photovoltaic retinal prosthesis

Photovoltaic retinal prosthesis is a technology for restoring sight to blind patients suffering from degenerative retinal diseases.[1] In retinal degenerative diseases such as Retinitis Pigmentosa and Age-Related Macular Degeneration,[2] patients loss ‘image capturing’ photo-receptors, but, neurons in the ‘image-processing’ inner retinal layers are relatively well preserved. In this retinal prosthesis sight of a patient is tried to be restored by electrically stimulating the surviving neurons. Photovoltaic retinal prosthesis implants are fully wireless and powered by near infrared illumination. Therefore, they do not require complex surgical methods to implant coil-decoder-cable-array systems which deliver energy to stimulating electrodes via intraocular cables, as in other retinal implant technologies.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Wang, Lele; Mathieson, K; Kamins, T I; Loudin, J D; Galambos, L; Goetz, G; Sher, A; Mandel, Y; et al. (2012). "Photovoltaic retinal prosthesis: Implant fabrication and performance". Journal of Neural Engineering 9 (4): 046014. doi:10.1088/1741-2560/9/4/046014. PMC 3419261. PMID 22791690.
  2. ↑ "Photovoltaic Retinal Prosthesis for Restoring Sight to the Blind". Stanford. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  3. ↑ Mathieson, Keith; Loudin, James; Goetz, Georges; Huie, Philip; Wang, Lele; Kamins, Theodore I.; Galambos, Ludwig; Smith, Richard; et al. (2012). "Photovoltaic retinal prosthesis with high pixel density". Nature Photonics 6 (6): 391–397. doi:10.1038/nphoton.2012.104. PMC 3462820. PMID 23049619.
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