Charge-balanced current driver and electrode characterization for an implantable neural stimulator

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Title Charge-balanced current driver and electrode characterization for an implantable neural stimulator
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Engineering
Department Electrical & Computer Engineering
Author Tracey, Keith J
Date 2007-09-24
Description Building an Implantable Neural Stimulator involves engineers across many disciplines. From an electrical engineering standpoint, the primary concern was the electrical components needed to interface with the body's electrical system. This worjc will specifically address the design of analog circuitry intended to inject charge into living tissue. One purpose of injecting charge into a living being is to send sensory data back to the brain from damaged or missing limbs. Two programmable complementary current sources were built to drive charge onto tiny microelectrodes that interface with nerve tissue. A Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC) was designed and fabricated to control the amplitude of the current injected. A Finite State Machine (FSM) controlled whether current was driven onto or taken off of the electrodes and for how long. A Microchip PIC microcontroller (connected off chip) passed data to the FSM and controlled how often stimulation pulses were to occur. Because these systems are going to be operating within a living organism, it is important not to interfere with other biological processes occurring simultaneously. This required that the stimulator be very small and consume very small amounts of power to keep tissue heating to a minimum. To develop all these electronic systems to drive stimulation pulses onto the microelectrodes, it was important to understand how the electrodes appeared electrically to the stimulator. Throughout the remainder of this work we will discuss how data were passed to the stimulator, how the stimulator electronics were developed, and how the microelectrodes, built by other engineers, were characterized and modeled electrically.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Artificial implants; Microelectrodes; Neural stimulation
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name MS
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital reproduction of "Charge-balanced current driver and electrode characterization for an implantable neural stimulator" J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections RD14.5 2007 .T73
Rights Management © Keith J. Tracey
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 40,383 bytes
Identifier us-etd2,127272
Source Original: University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections
Conversion Specifications Original scanned on Epson GT-30000 as 400 dpi to pdf using ABBYY FineReader 9.0 Professional Edition.
ARK ark:/87278/s6z613kh
Setname ir_etd
ID 192835
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6z613kh
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