Wireless data-rate bottleneck

The mismatch between the raw data a high-channel implant generates and what a safe wireless link can carry. Broadband recording from thousands of channels at tens of kilohertz and about ten bits per sample implies hundreds of megabits to gigabits per second; achievable through-tissue telemetry, constrained by antenna size, absorption, and above all the power and heat the implant may dissipate, is far lower.

This bottleneck, not the number of amplifiers, is often the true limit on how many channels a fully implantable wireless system can stream — and it is the main reason on-implant compression is mandatory rather than optional. The link budget couples directly to the thermal budget: pushing more bits per second costs more radiated power, which turns into tissue heating.