Toward a fully integrated neurostimulator with inductive power recovery front-end

Trends in volumetric-energy efficiency of implantable neurostimulators: a review from a circuits and systems perspective

This paper presents a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art, commercially available neurostimulators. We analyse key design parameters and performance metrics of 45 implantable medical devices across six neural target categories: deep brain, vagus nerve, spinal cord, phrenic nerve, sacral nerve and hypoglossal nerve. We then benchmark these alongside modern cardiac pacemaker devices that represent a more established market. This work studies trends in device size, electrode number, battery technology (i.e., primary and secondary use and chemistry), power consumption and longevity. This information is analysed to show the course of design decisions adopted by industry and identifying opportunity for further innovation. We identify fundamental limits in power consumption, longevity and size as well as the interdependencies and trade-offs. We propose a figure of merit to quantify volumetric efficiency within specific therapeutic targets, battery technologies/capacities, charging capabilities and electrode count. Finally, we compare commercially available implantable medical devices with recently developed systems in the research community. We envisage this analysis to aid circuit and system designers in system optimisation and identifying innovation opportunities, particularly those related to low power circuit design techniques.

Maximizing Data Transmission Rate for Implantable Devices Over a Single Inductive Link: Methodological Review

Due to the constantly growing geriatric population and the projected increase of the prevalence of chronic diseases that are refractory to drugs, implantable medical devices (IMDs) such as neurostimulators, endoscopic capsules, artificial retinal prostheses, and brain-machine interfaces are being developed. According to many business forecast firms, the IMD market is expected to grow and they are subject to much research aiming to overcome the numerous challenges of their development. One of these challenges consists of designing a wireless power and data transmission system that has high power efficiency, high data rates, low power consumption, and high robustness against noise. This is in addition to minimal design and implementation complexity. This manuscript concerns a comprehensive survey of the latest techniques used to power up and communicate between an external base station and an IMD. Patient safety considerations related to biological, physical, electromagnetic, and electromagnetic interference concerns for wireless IMDs are also explored. The simultaneous powering and data communication techniques using a single inductive link for both power transfer and bidirectional data communication, including the various data modulation/demodulation techniques, are also reviewed. This review will hopefully contribute to the persistent efforts to implement compact reliable IMDs while lowering their cost and upsurging their benefits.

An Integrated Wireless Power Management and Data Telemetry IC for High-Compliance-Voltage Electrical Stimulation Applications

This paper describes a 13.56-MHz wireless power recovery system with bidirectional data link for high-compliance-voltage neural/muscle stimulator. The power recovery circuit includes a 2-stage rectifier, 2 LDOs and a high voltage charge pump to provide 3 DC outputs: 1.8 V, 3.3 V and 20 V for the stimulator. A 2-stage time division based rectifier is proposed to provide 3 DC outputs simultaneously. It improves the power efficiency without introducing any impact on the forward data recovery. The 20 V output is generated by a modified low ripple charge pump that reduces the ripple voltage by 40%. The power management system shows 49% peak power efficiency. The data link includes a clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit and a load shift keying (LSK) modulator for bidirectional data telemetry. The forward and backward data rates of the data telemetry are 61.5 kbps and 33.3 kbps, respectively. In addition, a power monitor circuit for closed-loop power control is implemented. The whole system has been fabricated in a 24 V HV LDMOS option 1.8 μ m CMOS process, occupying a core area of around 3.5 mm (2).

An On-Chip Multi-Voltage Power Converter With Leakage Current Prevention Using 0.18 μm High-Voltage CMOS Process

In this paper, we present an on-chip multi-voltage power converter incorporating of a quad-voltage timing-control rectifier and regulators to produce ±12 V and ±1.8 V simultaneously through inductive powering. The power converter achieves a PCE of 77.3% with the delivery of more than 100 mW to the implant. The proposed rectifier adopts a two-phase start-up scheme and mixed-voltage gate controller to avoid substrate leakage current. This current cannot be prevented by the conventional dynamic substrate biasing technique when using the high-voltage CMOS process with transistor threshold voltage higher than the turn-on voltage of parasitic diodes. High power conversion efficiency is achieved by 1) substrate leakage current prevention, 2) operating all rectifying transistors as switches with boosted gate control voltages, and 3) compensating the delayed turn-on and preventing reverse leakage current of rectifying switches with the proposed look-ahead comparator. This chip occupies an area of 970 μm × 4500 μm in a 0.18 μ m 32 V HV CMOS process. The quad-voltage timing-control rectifier alone is able to output a high DC voltage at the range of [2.5 V, 25 V]. With this power converter, both bench-top experiment and in-vivo power link test using a rat model were validated.

Development of a Compact Rectenna for Wireless Powering of a Head-Mountable Deep Brain Stimulation Device

Design of a rectangular spiral planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) at 915 MHz for wireless power transmission applications is proposed. The antenna and rectifying circuitry form a rectenna, which can produce dc power from a distant radio frequency energy transmitter. The generated dc power is used to operate a low-power deep brain stimulation pulse generator. The proposed antenna has the dimensions of 10 mm \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{upgreek} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} }{}$\times\,$ \end{document}12.5 mm \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{upgreek} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} }{}$\times\,$ \end{document}1.5 mm and resonance frequency of 915 MHz with a measured bandwidth of 15 MHz at return loss of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{upgreek} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} }{}${-}{\rm 10}~{\rm dB}$ \end{document}. A dielectric substrate of FR-4 of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{upgreek} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} }{}$\varepsilon _{r}=4.8$ \end{document} and \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{upgreek} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} }{}$\delta=0.015$ \end{document} with thickness of 1.5 mm is used for both antenna and rectifier circuit simulation and fabrication because of its availability and low cost. An L-section impedance matching circuit is used between the PIFA and voltage doubler rectifier. The impedance matching circuit also works as a low-pass filter for elimination of higher order harmonics. Maximum dc voltage at the rectenna output is 7.5 V in free space and this rectenna can drive a deep brain stimulation pulse generator at a distance of 30 cm from a radio frequency energy transmitter, which transmits power of 26.77 dBm.