Company profileNeuromodulation
Medtronic
Maker of the first deep brain stimulator authorised to adjust itself to the brain signals it records.
- Location
- Minneapolis, United States
- Class
- NeuromodulationA large medical-device maker, listed for one product line: deep brain stimulators that sense the brain's own signals and, since 2025, adjust stimulation to them. Nothing is decoded into a command, so it is not counted as a BCI company.Not counted among core BCI companies.
- Website
- medtronic.com
- Funding stage
- Public
- Sources last checked
- 6 Oct 2026
What they are building
Sells Percept deep brain stimulators, which record local field potentials through the electrodes that deliver the therapy. BrainSense Adaptive DBS, approved by the FDA in February 2025 for Parkinson's disease, uses that recording to raise and lower stimulation as the signal changes.
- Interface category
- Sensing-enabled deep brain stimulation · Deep brain stimulation
- Signal
- Sensing DBS: Local field potentials out; electrical pulses inDBS: Continuous electrical pulses
- Invasiveness
- Invasive
- Recording / stimulation
- Recording and stimulation
- Main use cases
- Restore
Where they are clinically
Approved / cleared
Authorised by a regulator for a defined use. Always check the scope.
The approval covers adaptive stimulation for Parkinson's disease on Percept neurostimulators. It is a therapy that adapts to one recorded signal, not a BCI authorisation. Medtronic is legally based in Galway, Ireland, and run from Minneapolis, which is the place shown.
Access today
Available
Authorised and obtainable for a defined group of patients or users.
- Shown in people
- Adaptive stimulation in Parkinson's disease, tested in clinic and at home in the ADAPT-PD trial and approved by the FDA in February 2025.
- Still an aim
- Wider use of the recordings: the implants sense more than the approved algorithm acts on.
- What stands in the way
- The loop follows one recorded signal by a fixed rule. It adapts a therapy and does not decode what a person intends.
On record here: 0 peer-reviewed papers
- 24 Feb 2025US FDA — Approval of adaptive deep brain stimulation. Stimulation that adjusts to local field potentials recorded by the same implant, for Parkinson's disease on Percept neurostimulators. A therapy that adapts to one signal; not a BCI authorisation.
Why this company matters
Medtronic matters to this field for precedent. Its sensing stimulators record from the brain in routine care, outside any study, and adaptive DBS is an authorised therapy in which an implant reads the brain and acts on what it reads with no clinician in the loop. The loop is simple: one signal, one rule. What it establishes is that a regulator will authorise a closed loop inside the brain, which every bidirectional BCI will depend on.
Key milestones
24 Feb 2025
FDA approves BrainSense Adaptive DBS and the BrainSense Electrode Identifier for Parkinson's disease, on ADAPT-PD results in 68 patients.
14 Dec 2020
ADAPT-PD, the trial of the adaptive algorithm, begins. It enrols 85 participants at ten sites.
IP and patents
Filings spread across 6 of the 11 layers, most often interface and electrodes (39 of 40 families) and stimulation (30).
- 40
- patent families identified and counted as BCI
- 2005
- earliest first filing among them
- 15
- first filed since 2021; the latest years are incomplete
- 29 of 39
- include a granted member, of those whose family record was read
Across the stack: families by layer
Themes, by number of families: electrodes and arrays (39), stimulation (30), wireless telemetry (22), peripheral interfaces (15), closed loop (15), packaging and hermeticity (11). A family can carry several.
Published in: United States (33), China (23), Australia (5), Japan (5), Austria (2), counted over the 39 families whose full record was read.
Representative families
- Integrated circuit package and medical device including samefirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Chips and on-implant computing, Packaging and hermeticityGranted · US
- Stimulation patterns for deep brain stimulationfirst filed 2021 · Electrodes and arrays, Stimulation, Closed loopGranted · EP, US
- Device for assessment of brain signalsfirst filed 2021 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, Signal processingGranted · EP, US
- Electrode characterization for programming guidancefirst filed 2021 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, StimulationGranted · EP, US
- Determining estimated neural threshold with ECAP signalsfirst filed 2021 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Packaging and hermeticityGranted · US
- Phase alignment of ECAPsfirst filed 2020 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Wireless telemetryGranted · EP, US
34 more families counted
- Leads with segmented electrodesfirst filed 2024 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, StimulationApplication
- Stimulation titration with sensing feedbackfirst filed 2024 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, StimulationApplication
- Electrode-tissue interface stability determinationfirst filed 2024 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Wireless telemetryApplication
- Flexible implantable medical devicefirst filed 2024 · Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronics, Packaging and hermeticityApplication
- Detection of cerebral hypoxia and/or hypoperfusion events using cranial implantable devicefirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronicsApplication
- A medical device system configured to determine a progression of parkinson's disease based on signals collected by a medical device implanted near the brainfirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Signal acquisition, Implant electronicsApplication
- Constructive and/or destructive evoked resonant neural activity (erna) for providing deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapyfirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Stimulation, Closed loopApplication
- Implantable mental state monitorfirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Packaging and hermeticity, Signal processingApplication
- Intra-luminal medical device with evoked biopotential sensing capabilityfirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, StimulationApplication
- Electrode configurations for electric field therapyfirst filed 2021 · Electrodes and arrays, Packaging and hermeticity, StimulationApplication
- Lead integrity and closed-loop algorithm diagnosticfirst filed 2020 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, StimulationGranted · EP, US
- Detection of seizure and strokefirst filed 2020 · Electrodes and arrays, Signal processing, Neural decodingGranted · CN
- Control policy settings for electrical stimulation therapyfirst filed 2020 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Wireless telemetryGranted · CN, EP, US
- Shape control for electrical stimulation therapyfirst filed 2020 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, StimulationGranted · CN, EP, US
- Burr cap-mounted electrodesfirst filed 2020 · Surgical planning and procedure, Electrodes and arrays, StimulationGranted · US
- Brain stimulation and sensingfirst filed 2019 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, Signal processingGranted · CN, EP, US
- Independent control of electrical stimulation amplitude for electrodes for delivery of electrical stimulation therapyfirst filed 2019 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, StimulationGranted · CN, EP, US
- Sub-threshold stimulation based on ECAP detectionfirst filed 2019 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Wireless telemetryGranted · CN, EP, US
- Medical device housings defining a lead bore and device compartmentfirst filed 2019 · Electrodes and arrays, Packaging and hermeticity, Connectors and feedthroughsGranted · CN, EP, US
- Determination of therapy electrode locations relative to oscillatory sources within patientfirst filed 2019 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, Signal processingGranted · EP, US
- Implantable medical device structuresfirst filed 2017 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Implant electronicsGranted · CN, EP, US
- Therapeutic electrical stimulation therapy for patient gait freezefirst filed 2017 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, StimulationGranted · CN, EP, JP, US
- Precision delivery of electrical stimulationfirst filed 2017 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Wireless telemetryGranted · CN, EP, JP, US
- Techniques for forming a modular leadfirst filed 2016 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Packaging and hermeticityGranted · CN, US
- Identification of compromised components in a medical systemfirst filed 2016 · Electrodes and arrays, StimulationGranted · US
- Implantable modular electrode array assemblyfirst filed 2015 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Packaging and hermeticityGranted · EP, US
- Composite filar for implantable medical devicefirst filed 2014 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Implant electronicsGranted · CN, US
- Therapy program selection for electrical stimulation therapy based on a volume of tissue activationfirst filed 2014 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, StimulationGranted · CN, EP, US
- Introduction of medical lead into patientfirst filed 2010 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfacesGranted · US
- Sleep stage detectionfirst filed 2008 · Electrodes and arrays, Stimulation, Closed loopStatus not yet checked
- Patient directed therapy controlfirst filed 2007 · Wireless telemetry, Stimulation, Closed loopGranted · CN, EP, US
- Cranial implantfirst filed 2006 · Electrodes and arrays, Packaging and hermeticity, StimulationGranted · US
- User interface with 3D environment for configuring stimulation therapyfirst filed 2006 · Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetry, StimulationGranted · EP, US
- Combination therapy including peripheral nerve field stimulationfirst filed 2005 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Packaging and hermeticityGranted · EP, US
Families found for Medtronic 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
ECoGFeasibility
ONWARD Medical
Spinal cord stimulation therapies, with a brain–spine interface in development.
ECoGFirst-in-human
CorTec
A fully implanted closed-loop system that both records from and stimulates the cortical surface.
ECoGFeasibility
Motif Neurotech
A miniature, wirelessly powered brain stimulator for treatment-resistant depression.
Sources
- 01
FDA approves Medtronic's adaptive deep brain stimulation for Parkinson disease (opens in a new tab)
Independent reportingNeurologyLive24 Feb 2025Checked against source 6 Oct 2026
States the approval of adaptive DBS and the BrainSense Electrode Identifier on Percept neurostimulators, the sensing of local field potentials, and the ADAPT-PD trial in 68 patients.
- 02
Clinical registryClinicalTrials.govChecked against source 5 Oct 2026
Sponsor MedtronicNeuro. Completed, 85 participants enrolled at ten sites; started 14 December 2020.
- 03
Medtronic (opens in a new tab)
Independent reportingWikipediaChecked against source 6 Oct 2026
An encyclopaedia entry, used for one fact only: the legal seat in Galway, Ireland, and the operational headquarters in Minneapolis.