Multichannel electrophysiological sensors and stimulators—particularly those used to study the nervous system—are usually based on monolithic microelectrode arrays. However, the architecture of such arrays limits flexibility in electrode placement and scaling to a large number of nodes, especially across non-contiguous locations. Here we report wirelessly networked and powered electronic microchips that can autonomously perform neural sensing and electrical microstimulation. The microchips, which we term neurograins, have an ~1 GHz electromagnetic transcutaneous link to an external telecom hub, providing bidirectional communication and control at the individual device level. To illustrate the potential of the approach, we show that 48 neurograins can be individually addressed on a rat cortical surface and used for the acute recording of neural activity. Theoretical calculations and experimental measurements show that the link configuration could potentially be scaled to 770 neurograins using a customized time-division multiple access protocol.

多通道电生理传感器和刺激器——尤其是那些用于研究神经系统的——通常基于单片微电极阵列。然而，这种阵列的架构限制了电极放置和扩展到大量节点的灵活性，特别是跨非连续位置。在这里，我们报告了可以自主执行神经传感和电微刺激的无线联网和供电的电子微芯片。我们称之为神经颗粒的微芯片具有与外部电信集线器的约 1 GHz 电磁经皮链路，可在单个设备级别提供双向通信和控制。为了说明这种方法的潜力，我们展示了 48 个神经颗粒可以在大鼠皮质表面上单独处理，并用于神经活动的急性记录。理论计算和实验测量表明，使用定制的时分多址协议，链接配置可能会扩展到 770 个神经粒。