Abstract
Purpose :
Corneal opacity is the second most common cause of reversible blindness after cataracts. The current standard of care is corneal transplantation. However, fundamental limitations, such as limited supply of donor corneas and graft rejection, leave many patients blind. There are over 12 million patients on cornea transplant waitlists. We have designed an intraocular implant that can overcome these fundamental limitations by electronically bypassing the cornea. We have demonstrated a proof-of-concept of this device on the benchtop.
Methods :
We designed an implant that contains a laser and scanning system to project images onto the retina. The implant is to be surgically implanted in the lens capsule of the eye. Power and data is transmitted wirelessly to the implant via a pair of glasses that houses a battery and a camera imaging system. The first generation device is designed to produce single color greyscale images and supports 640x480 resolution with a field of view of 45 degrees and 30 degrees in the horizontal and vertical axes, respectively.
We have completed a benchtop optical system that demonstrates proof of concept. Custom miniaturized optical components suitable for a final 10-mm diameter system were designed and fabricated. All optical elements were placed on a high-resolution 3-D printed scaffold. Prototype electronics to transmit and receive data and power were designed and built and successfully generated a properly synchronized image.
Results :
Our benchtop system successfully displayed images at 320x240 resolution with 30 fps refresh rate. The images had 4-bit color depth and were projected in focus at a distance similar to the lens capsule to retina spacing. The electrical power to drive the illumination system at maximum brightness is less than 10 mW. Power consumption of the scanning mirror system is less than 100 mW. The tetherless system successfully received power and data through two separate antennas.
Conclusions :
We have completed a benchtop demonstration of an electronic implant to bypass cornea opacity. This provides a technological solution to corneal blindness that overcomes the current limitations of transplantation.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.