Full-Stack Architectures for Intelligent Brain-Computer Interfaces

https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.75838

Abstract

Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) have made consistent advances in supporting motor and communication functions; nevertheless, their adoption in everyday environments remains constrained by enduring challenges, including chronic instability at the electrode–tissue interface, motion-induced artifacts, inter-user variability, and strict power and bandwidth limitations. To address these issues, recent work has increasingly focused on system-level innovations encompassing electrode design, wireless communication strategies, and neural decoding algorithms. At the interface level, enhancements in electrochemical performance and mechanical compliance improve long-term electrode–tissue coupling and help maintain signal integrity during naturalistic movement. For signal acquisition and transmission, miniaturized front-end electronics and energy-efficient telemetry architectures enable higher channel counts while minimizing power consumption and optimizing bandwidth utilization. In parallel, decoding approaches have evolved from static, feature-based pipelines toward adaptive machine-learning and deep-learning methods that are more resilient to nonstationary neural signals and capable of supporting low-latency, closed-loop operation. This review consolidates findings from contemporary preclinical and human studies to provide a comprehensive perspective on system-level engineering strategies for practical BCI technologies, emphasizing neural interface architecture and system-design approaches that enhance signal stability and real-world usability, while also identifying emerging design paradigms that may facilitate next-generation BCIs with improved scalability and broader practical impact.