Redundant Crossfire Circuit for Precise Neurostimulation Pulses
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current neuromodulation devices face challenges in accurately sensing and modulating neural signals due to high noise levels, signal decay over time, and the inability to record microvolt-level nerve activity, which limits their effectiveness in therapeutic applications.
Innovation Solution
A redundant crossfire circuit design that exploits random transistor mismatch to achieve super-resolution signal accuracy, combining the outputs of multiple current drivers to form a redundant structure that suppresses residual charge and stimulation noise artifacts, while maintaining low power consumption and compact size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional current drivers are used in neuromodulation devices, then the device can deliver stimulation current, but the output precision is limited by inherent physical constraints and cannot achieve super-resolution accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The current driver is divided into multiple parallel current drivers (at least two), each capable of independent operation. This segmentation allows the system to overcome the precision limitations of individual drivers by combining their outputs through a redundant crossfire configuration, achieving super-resolution accuracy beyond what a single driver could provide.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple current driver outputs are merged through a redundant crossfire structure that combines the current outputs in a specific configuration. This merging process exploits random transistor mismatch between the parallel drivers to generate accurate current pulses with effective super-resolution, converting what would normally be a source of error into a beneficial effect for enhancing precision.
2Measurement precision
If multiple current drivers are combined to achieve super-resolution accuracy, then signal precision improves, but residual charge and stimulation noise artifacts increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system converts the harmful effect of random transistor mismatch, which normally causes precision errors, into a beneficial effect that enables super-resolution accuracy. By deliberately exploiting the random mismatch between parallel current drivers in a redundant crossfire configuration, the system achieves precision beyond conventional limitations while managing residual charge and noise artifacts through the specific crossfire arrangement.
Solution Approach 2:
The redundant crossfire configuration provides an inherent feedback mechanism where the combined output of multiple current drivers is continuously monitored and adjusted. This feedback allows the system to compensate for residual charge and noise artifacts generated by the parallel drivers, maintaining high precision current delivery while mitigating the harmful effects of multiple driver combinations.
3Measurement precision
If high-resolution sensing and stimulation circuits are implemented, then signal detection and modulation accuracy improve, but power consumption and device size increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a single high-precision current driver that would consume significant power, the system employs multiple parallel current drivers with moderate individual precision. The redundant crossfire configuration combines their outputs to achieve super-resolution accuracy, effectively using 'excessive' number of drivers to compensate for individual limitations while distributing power consumption across multiple lower-power components.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters of the current drivers by operating them in parallel with specific timing and amplitude configurations. By adjusting the digital-to-analog converter settings and current mirror ratios in the redundant crossfire arrangement, the system achieves high precision current delivery while maintaining low power consumption through optimized parameter selection rather than relying on single high-power high-precision components.
Data Source
AI summary
A neurostimulator incorporating a novel chip design that uses the principle of redundant signal crossfiring to overcome electronic component mismatch error in general and transistor mismatch error in particular, to yield superior quality neurostimulation signal generation, useful in enhancing the bidirectional human-machine interface in prosthesis operation for the restoration of somatosensation for an amputee.