BUT THE CHIP ISN’T REALLY DOING ANYTHING

Uh huh.

With the help of German microchip company Infineon, NACHIP placed 16,384 transistors and hundreds of capacitors on a chip just 1mm squared in size. The group had to find appropriate materials and refine the topology of the chip to make the connection with neurons possible.

Biologically NACHIP uses special proteins found in the brain to essentially glue the neurons to the chip. These proteins act as more than a simple adhesive, however. “They also provided the link between ionic channels of the neurons and semiconductor material in a way that neural electrical signals could be passed to the silicon chip,” says Vassanelli.

Once there, that signal can be recorded using the chip’s transistors. What’s more, the neurons can also be stimulated through the capacitors. This is what enables the two-way communications.|link|

One more pic because neurons look awesome.