2025 Theses Doctoral

A Wireless Fully Endovascular Neural Interface

Stanton, John

Electrical stimulation of the peripheral nervous system has opened up new avenues for intervention in autonomic function and immune system responses beyond the capabilities available with pharmaceuticals. Stimulation devices delivered to the endovasculature provide a significantly less invasive alternative to conventional implanted electrode systems while improving spatio-temporal specificity relative to wholly noninvasive techniques.

In this work I demonstrate the first fully self-contained vascular implant suitable for implantation in vessels 1.43-mm in diameter or larger and introduce a rotationally invariant system architecture utilizing ultrasound for power and data telemetry. The implant consists of piezoelectric transducers, an energy storage capacitor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and a pair of gold stimulation electrodes packaged on a 7-µm-thick custom polyimide package.

The implant can be rolled into a microcatheter and delivered to the endovasculature, consistent with conventional stenting delivery techniques, self-expanding upon deployment to the vessel extents and remaining in tight-apposition to the vascular wall. Using this device, we demonstrate the ability to stimulate the vagus nerve and carotid sinus from the common carotid artery (CCA) to modulate blood pressure in the rabbit model, with a reduction in mean arterial pressure of 10%.