A Low-Power PLL-Less Wideband OOK Wireless Neural-Signal Transmitter for Miniaturized Neural Interfaces with In Vivo Validation in Freely Moving Mice.

Overview

Authors: Guijun Shu^1,2, Fangning Zhang^1,2, Chuang Yang^1,2, Hongyu Jia^1,2, Xiao Wang^1,2, Ming Yin^1,2

ORCID iDs: Xiao Wang

State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570100, China; (G.S.)
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Hainan Province, One Health Institute, Hainan University, Haikou 570100, China

Institutions: Hainan University (China)

Journal: Biosensors, volume 16, issue 8, article 405

Dates: received 23 June 2026; accepted 24 July 2026; published online 25 July 2026

Type: Research article · Language: English

License: CC BY

Identifiers: DOI 10.3390/bios16080405 · PMID 42645023 · PMCID PMC13510494 · OpenAlex W7171355568

Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)

Status: code on request

Categories: extracellular electrophysiology (units, LFP) (modality), mouse (organism)

Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Smoothing, state filtering, decompositions, Preprocessing, Single-unit activity, calcium imaging

Keywords: wireless neural recording, neural interface, OOK transmitter, PLL-less transmitter, low-power telemetry, in vivo neural recording, freely moving mice, CMOS transmitter

MeSH: Biosensing Techniques*, Wireless Technology*, Animals, Local Field Potential Measurement, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Neurons (* major topic)

Topic: Advancements in PLL and VCO Technologies (Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Engineering), according to OpenAlex

Funding: National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022ZD0208600, 2022ZD0208602); National Natural Science Foundation of China (62466015); Key Research and Development Program of Hainan Province (ZDYF2025SHFZ023)

Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 30 references in the paper

Abstract

High-channel-count neural recording requires wireless links with high throughput, low power, and compact implementation, yet commercial protocols and phase-locked loop (PLL)-based transmitters often trade data rate against power and complexity. We present a low-power, PLL-less wideband on–off keying (OOK) neural-signal transmitter fabricated in a 180 nm CMOS process. The transmitter employs a free-running inductor–capacitor voltage-controlled oscillator (LC-VCO), a Gilbert mixer for OOK modulation and reverse isolation, and a current-reuse stacked power amplifier. It consumes 8 mA from a 3.3 V supply (26.4 mW), demonstrates modulation and receiver frame acquisition at a maximum raw input rate of 90 Mbps, corresponding to a 180 Mbps Manchester-coded line rate, and tunes from 3.266 to 3.445 GHz. End-to-end bit error rate (BER) was measured at raw rates of 15 and 31.2 Mbps, corresponding to encoded rates of 30 and 62.4 Mbps; the latter matches the in vivo data stream. The transmitter was integrated with a 128-channel recording chip and evaluated in freely moving adult C57 mice. Wireless hippocampal spike and local field potential (LFP) recordings, wired-system comparison, and event-locked LFP analysis support its feasibility for untethered neural recording.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

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Data

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Data Availability Statement

Processed data supporting the main findings of this study and the key analysis scripts are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The raw in vivo neural recording data are not publicly released because of their large file size and institutional data-management requirements related to animal-experiment records and unpublished chip-system documentation. Where necessary for verification or reproducibility of the reported results, de-identified processed data or additional supporting information may be provided in accordance with institutional ethics and data-management policies.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

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Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 6 authors, 8 keywords, 7 MeSH terms, 3 funders, 20 references.

Cite

This paper

Shu, G., Zhang, F., Yang, C., Jia, H., Wang, X., & Yin, M. (2026). A Low-Power PLL-Less Wideband OOK Wireless Neural-Signal Transmitter for Miniaturized Neural Interfaces with In Vivo Validation in Freely Moving Mice. Biosensors, 16(8), 405. https://doi.org/10.3390/bios16080405

BibTeX

@article{shu2026low, author = {Shu, Guijun and Zhang, Fangning and Yang, Chuang and Jia, Hongyu and Wang, Xiao and Yin, Ming}, title = {{A Low-Power PLL-Less Wideband OOK Wireless Neural-Signal Transmitter for Miniaturized Neural Interfaces with In Vivo Validation in Freely Moving Mice}}, journal = {Biosensors}, year = {2026}, month = jul, volume = {16}, number = {8}, pages = {405}, publisher = {Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)}, issn = {2079-6374}, doi = {10.3390/bios16080405}, url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/bios16080405}, pmid = {42645023}, pmcid = {PMC13510494} }

RIS

TY - JOUR AU - Shu, Guijun AU - Zhang, Fangning AU - Yang, Chuang AU - Jia, Hongyu AU - Wang, Xiao AU - Yin, Ming TI - A Low-Power PLL-Less Wideband OOK Wireless Neural-Signal Transmitter for Miniaturized Neural Interfaces with In Vivo Validation in Freely Moving Mice T2 - Biosensors J2 - Biosensors (Basel) PY - 2026 DA - 2026/07/25 VL - 16 IS - 8 SP - 405 SN - 2079-6374 PB - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) DO - 10.3390/bios16080405 UR - https://doi.org/10.3390/bios16080405 LA - en ER -

CSL-JSON

{ "id": "10.3390/bios16080405", "type": "article-journal", "title": "A Low-Power PLL-Less Wideband OOK Wireless Neural-Signal Transmitter for Miniaturized Neural Interfaces with In Vivo Validation in Freely Moving Mice", "container-title": "Biosensors", "author": [ { "family": "Shu", "given": "Guijun" }, { "family": "Zhang", "given": "Fangning" }, { "family": "Yang", "given": "Chuang" }, { "family": "Jia", "given": "Hongyu" }, { "family": "Wang", "given": "Xiao" }, { "family": "Yin", "given": "Ming" } ], "container-title-short": "Biosensors (Basel)", "volume": "16", "issue": "8", "page": "405", "DOI": "10.3390/bios16080405", "PMID": "42645023", "PMCID": "PMC13510494", "ISSN": "2079-6374", "publisher": "Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)", "URL": "https://doi.org/10.3390/bios16080405", "language": "en", "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 7, 25 ] ] } }

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