Butterfly Network, Forest Neuro Team Up on BCI Using Ultrasound-on-Chip

Butterfly Network and Forest Neurotech have entered a five-year co-development agreement. Forest Neurotech is a deep tech research firm building a minimally invasive device to image and stimulate the brain with ultrasound.
 
The duo plans to develop an implanted, whole-brain neural interface powered by Butterfly’s Ultrasound-on-Chip technology. In the agreement, $20 million will be paid to Butterfly for annual licensing, chip purchases, services, and milestone payments ($3.5 million was received on the deal’s signing). The team anticipates further revenue for every unit sold upon commercialization.
 
The news follows Butterfly’s August 2023 launch of Butterfly Garden to facilitate partnerships with medical device companies, artificial intelligence (AI) companies, or software developers looking to build new applications with its imaging platform. The company’s Ultrasound-on-Chip, it said, can operate at a wide range of frequencies, has programming flexibility, and is compact.
 
Butterfly’s chairman, president, and CEO Joseph DeVivo told the press, “Forest Neurotech is an exemplary partner that validates the vision behind Butterfly Garden. We opened our imaging platform for co-development to encourage and expedite innovation that captures the full potential of Butterfly’s disruptive chip technology through new applications and in adjacent markets. By bringing our chip into the neurotech implantables space, this partnership does exactly that.”
 
“We are thrilled to embark on this journey with Butterfly Network, whose unique Ultrasound-on-Chip technology is key to enabling our novel approach to minimally invasive brain imaging and stimulation,” added Forest Neurotech co-founder and chief technology officer Will Biederman.