Company profileCore BCI
Blackrock Neurotech
Maker of the electrode arrays behind most human intracortical BCI research.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, United States
- Founded
- 2008
- Class
- Core BCI
- Website
- blackrockneurotech.com
- Sources last checked
- 6 Oct 2026
What they are building
Supplies Utah-array-based recording and stimulation systems used in long-running academic studies, and develops its own clinical BCI products.
- Interface category
- Intracortical arrays · Intracortical recording with microstimulation
- Signal
- Intracortical: Action potentials and local field potentialsIntracortical + ICMS: Spikes out; microamp pulses in
- Invasiveness
- Invasive
- Recording / stimulation
- Recording and stimulation
- Device
- Utah array (NeuroPort) — Rigid silicon microelectrode array, typically connected through a skull-mounted pedestal
- Channels
- 96 electrodes per array in most human studies
- Regulatory status
- Investigational for chronic BCI use
- Main use cases
- Control, Communicate, Move, Feel
- Works with
- University of Pittsburgh · Johns Hopkins University
Where they are clinically
Feasibility
Small early studies that test safety and whether the device can do what it is meant to.
Access today
Clinical study
Accessible only by enrolling in a registered clinical study.
- Shown in people
- Its arrays recorded most of the field's peer-reviewed human results, among them speech at 97.5% word accuracy and touch feedback that cut a grasping task from 20.9 to 10.2 seconds.
- Still an aim
- A product of its own that a clinician can prescribe. None is authorised.
- What stands in the way
- Form: a rigid 96-electrode array, wired through the skull in most studies, against fully implanted wireless designs.
On record here: 3 registered studies · 62 participants planned or enrolled · 5 peer-reviewed papers
This technology remains experimental and is not an established treatment. Access is limited to registered clinical studies.
Why this company matters
Nearly every landmark academic result in speech, handwriting and sensory feedback was recorded through Utah-style arrays, which gives Blackrock the longest human track record in the field. Its challenge is converting a research-instrument business into a product a clinician can prescribe, against newer fully implanted, wireless designs.
Key milestones
Sep 2026
Named as collaborator on a Johns Hopkins study of higher-throughput intracortical interfaces.
Interfacing with neurotechnology to expand neural throughput · NCT07521930
29 Apr 2024
Tether invests $200M and becomes the majority shareholder.
Clinical programmes
- Interfacing with neurotechnology to expand neural throughput
Academic study with Blackrock Neurotech as collaborator.
FeasibilityRecruiting
5 estimatedNCT07521930
- CRS-BMI
Bidirectional intracortical BCI: motor decoding with tactile feedback by microstimulation.
FeasibilityRecruiting
30 estimatedNCT01894802
- BrainGate2
The longest-running intracortical BCI study, open since 2009 across six US sites.
FeasibilityRecruiting
27 estimatedNCT00912041
Research
- 2025An instantaneous voice-synthesis neuroprosthesis
Wairagkar M et al. · Nature
- 2024An Accurate and Rapidly Calibrating Speech Neuroprosthesis
Card NS et al. · New England Journal of Medicine
- 2023A high-performance speech neuroprosthesis
Willett FR et al. · Nature
- 2021A brain-computer interface that evokes tactile sensations improves robotic arm control
Flesher SN et al. · Science
- 2021High-performance brain-to-text communication via handwriting
Willett FR et al. · Nature
Funding history
- 29 Apr 2024$200MStrategic investment · led by TetherTether became the majority shareholder, so this is a change of control as much as a financing.
Investors namedTether
Rounds in the Briefing’s sample only; not a complete funding history.
IP and patents
Filings touch 4 of the 11 layers, most often interface and electrodes (11 of 14 families) and stimulation (11).
- 14
- patent families identified and counted as BCI
- 2009
- earliest first filing among them
- 9
- first filed since 2021; the latest years are incomplete
- 3 of 14
- include a granted member, of those whose family record was read
Across the stack: families by layer
Themes, by number of families: stimulation (11), electrodes and arrays (10), wireless telemetry (4), signal acquisition (2), connectors and feedthroughs (2), wireless power (2). A family can carry several.
Published in: United States (12), Australia (2), China (1), counted over the 14 families whose full record was read.
Representative families
- Systems and methods for seizure detection and closed-loop neurostimulationfirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless power, Wireless telemetryGranted · US
- Subcutaneous transcranial focused ultrasoundfirst filed 2023 · Ultrasound, StimulationApplication
- Subcutaneous functional near-infrared spectroscopyfirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Optical interfacesApplication
- Neural stimulation and sensing system for auditory and non-auditory activationfirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, StimulationApplication
- Medical device for closed loop vagal nerve stimulationfirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, StimulationGranted · US
- Methods and systems for signal processing of neural datafirst filed 2009 · Signal processingGranted · US
8 more families counted
- Tile-based neural recording and stimulation systemfirst filed 2024 · Electrodes and arrays, Connectors and feedthroughs, StimulationApplication
- Systems and methods for pseudomonophasic brain stimulationfirst filed 2024 · Electrodes and arrays, StimulationApplication
- Implantable embedded systems and related manufacturing methodsfirst filed 2024 · Electrodes and arrays, Packaging and hermeticity, Wireless powerApplication
- Apparatus and methods to provide a scalable and flexible high channel density neural interfacefirst filed 2021 · Wireless telemetry, StimulationApplication
- Device and method for acute brain tumor mapping and for chronic therapeutic applications following a tumor resectionfirst filed 2020 · Electrodes and arrays, StimulationApplication
- Stimulation and recording ASIC architecture for general neurosensing and neural modulation applicationsfirst filed 2020 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Signal acquisitionApplication
- Electroencephalography (EEG) electrode arrays and related methods of usefirst filed 2019 · Electrodes and arrays, StimulationApplication
- Self-Aligning and Self-Engaging Electrical Connectorsfirst filed 2015 · Signal acquisition, Implant electronics, Connectors and feedthroughsApplication
Families found for Blackrock Neurotech in the EPO’s worldwide database, grouped so that one invention counts once. A filing shows what a company sought to protect. It does not show that the technology was built, is in a product, or works in people, and themes are read from titles, abstracts and classes, not from the claims. How to read this
Competitive context
IntracorticalFeasibility
Paradromics
A high-data-rate intracortical BCI aimed first at restoring speech.
IntracorticalFeasibility
Neuralink
A fully implanted, wireless intracortical BCI placed by a surgical robot.
IntracorticalFeasibility
BrainGate
The academic consortium behind two decades of human intracortical BCI research.
Sources
- 01
Tether invests $200 million in biotech firm Blackrock Neurotech (opens in a new tab)
Independent reportingThe Block29 Apr 2024Checked against source 6 Oct 2026
Reports that Tether became the majority shareholder.
- 02
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07521930 (opens in a new tab)
Clinical registryClinicalTrials.gov2 Sep 2026Checked against source 3 Oct 2026
Registry record last updated 2026-09-02.