Portiloop v2 EEG acquisition and closed-loop stimulation hardware

Portiloop v2

Open-source EEG hardware for closed-loop brain stimulation.

Portiloop is an open-source, portable platform developed for electroencephalography acquisition, real-time neural-event detection, and closed-loop stimulation experiments.

My primary contribution focused on the electronic hardware and PCB development of Portiloop v2. I designed versions 2.1 and 2.2 using Altium Designer and developed version 2.3 using KiCad, supporting continued hardware refinement, embedded integration, and openly reproducible development.

Role PCB Designer and Hardware Developer
Period 2023 to 2026
Organization MIST Lab, Polytechnique Montréal
Focus EEG Hardware and PCB Design
EEG Hardware Closed-Loop Stimulation Custom PCB Design ADS1299 Coral Dev Board Mini Altium Designer KiCad Embedded Integration Open-Source Hardware

My Contributions

My work centered on PCB design, component integration, electrical interfaces, manufacturability, and preparation of the hardware for experimental use.

  • Designed the Portiloop v2.1 and v2.2 printed circuit boards using Altium Designer.
  • Translated system requirements into schematics, component placement, routing, connectors, and fabrication-ready design files.
  • Developed the Portiloop v2.3 board using KiCad.
  • Integrated EEG acquisition, embedded processing, power, communication, and external hardware interfaces.
  • Considered board dimensions, connector placement, manufacturability, and integration with the processing board.
  • Prepared and maintained open-source hardware resources for fabrication, review, and future modification.
  • Supported prototype assembly, inspection, integration, and iterative hardware testing.

System Architecture

The platform combines EEG signal acquisition, embedded processing, neural-event detection, experimental control, and stimulation within a portable closed-loop system.

1 EEG Electrodes and Analog Signals
2 ADS1299 EEG Acquisition
3 Custom Portiloop PCB
4 Coral Dev Board Mini
5 Real-Time Detection
6 Closed-Loop Stimulation

EEG Acquisition

The ADS1299 analog front end digitizes low-amplitude EEG signals and provides the acquisition interface required for downstream processing.

Embedded Processing

The Coral Dev Board Mini provides onboard computation for signal processing, neural-event detection, system control, data recording, and user interaction.

Closed-Loop Operation

Detected EEG events can be used to trigger stimulation with controlled timing, enabling experiments that respond to brain activity in real time.

Hardware Development

Schematic Design

Defined the electrical connections among EEG acquisition, embedded processing, power, communication, stimulation, and external interface components.

PCB Layout

Performed component placement and multilayer routing while considering signal integrity, board dimensions, connectors, manufacturability, and integration with the processing board.

Design Migration

Transitioned the hardware-development workflow from Altium Designer for versions 2.1 and 2.2 to KiCad for version 2.3, supporting greater accessibility within the open-source project.

Prototype and Fabrication Support

Prepared the PCB design resources needed for fabrication, assembly, inspection, integration, and iterative hardware testing.

Publication and Open-Source Resources

Personalizing Brain Stimulation: Continual Learning for Sleep Spindle Detection

Journal of Neural Engineering

Portiloop Hardware

PCB schematics, board layouts, fabrication resources, component models, and hardware documentation.

Portiloop Software

Device software and graphical interfaces for controlling acquisition, real-time detection, stimulation, and EEG recording.

Portiloop Training

Machine-learning resources associated with training the sleep-spindle detector used by the closed-loop system.