An introduction and review on innovative silicon implementations of implantable/scalp EEG chips for data acquisition, seizure/behavior detection, and brain stimulation

Technological advances in the semiconductor industry and the increasing demand and development of wearable medical systems have enabled the development of dedicated chips for complex electroencephalogram (EEG) signal processing with smart functions and artificial intelligence-based detections/classifications. Around 10 million transistors are integrated into a 1 mm² silicon wafer surface in the dedicated chip, making wearable EEG systems a powerful dedicated processor instead of a wireless raw data transceiver. The reduction of amplifiers and analog-digital converters on the silicon surface makes it possible to place the analog front-end circuits within a tiny packaged chip; therefore, enabling high-count EEG acquisition channels. This article introduces and reviews the state-of-the-art dedicated chip designs for EEG processing, particularly for wearable systems. Furthermore, the analog circuits and digital platforms are included, and the technical details of circuit topology and logic architecture are presented in detail.