An Artificial Iris ASIC With High Voltage Liquid Crystal Driver, 10-nA Light Range Detector and 40-nA Blink Detector for LCD Flicker Removal

Abstract

In a normally functioning eye, the iris controls the pupil diameter to regulate the amount of light reaching the retina. Various iris deficiencies exist, manifesting as defects in the iris or an absence of one which result in too much light reaching the retina. Some iris deficiencies, such as aniridia or leiomyoma, can be mitigated with fixed or adaptive artificial irises. As an alternative, adaptive transparency glasses may also alleviate this situation, however, both solutions do not mimic the other normal functionality of the natural iris: adaptive aperture. To address this, we developed a fully encapsulated, self-contained artificial iris embedded in a smart contact lens. The control ASIC of the contact lens is developed in 0.18-mu m 16-V BCD TSMC and has a typical power consumption of 1.9 mu W from a 3-V supply voltage at office light condition.