Implant with Segmented Conductive Wire Arms
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current implants used for carrying electrical impulses in the body are susceptible to mechanical and chemical corrosion, leading to instability and reduced effectiveness in recording or stimulating neural activity, and require multiple electrodes to ensure redundancy, increasing complexity and cost.
Innovation Solution
The implant design features a set of electrically conductive wires with a unique configuration of arms, each comprising a proximal, middle, and distal portion, encased in insulating sheaths, allowing for increased mechanical resistance and flexibility to accommodate tissue movement while maintaining electrical connectivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If small diameter electrodes are used to record neural activity, then measurement precision is improved, but mechanical strength deteriorates making them susceptible to damage from body movements
Solution Approach 1:
The implant is divided into multiple arms, each arm containing multiple independently encased conductive wires. This segmentation allows each wire to be independently protected and positioned, maintaining the precision of small diameter electrodes while distributing mechanical stress across multiple segments rather than a single fragile electrode structure.
Solution Approach 2:
Each arm combines multiple conductive wires with insulating sheaths in a composite structure. The insulating sheaths provide mechanical protection and electrical isolation, while the multiple conductive wires maintain the precision recording capability. This composite approach strengthens the fragile electrodes without compromising their measurement precision.
2Reliability
If multiple electrodes are used to ensure redundancy, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each arm in the implant is designed to serve multiple functions: it contains multiple conductive wires for redundant recording, provides mechanical protection through encasing, and can be independently positioned to target different neural areas. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate structural components, thereby reducing overall device complexity while maintaining reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The conductive wires are nested within insulating sheaths, which are in turn contained within the arm structure. This nested arrangement organizes multiple electrodes and protective layers into a compact, hierarchical structure that reduces spatial complexity and simplifies implantation while providing the necessary redundancy for reliability.
3Strength
If rigid structure is used to resist mechanical stress, then strength is improved, but adaptability deteriorates causing detachment from moving tissue
Solution Approach 1:
The implant arms are designed with flexible encasing structures that allow dynamic movement relative to the tissue. The insulating sheaths and arm configurations enable the implant to adapt to tissue motion while maintaining electrical connectivity, resolving the contradiction between rigid stress resistance and flexible tissue adaptation.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulating sheaths surrounding the conductive wires are designed as flexible structures that can deform with tissue movement. These flexible shells provide mechanical protection and electrical isolation while allowing the implant to adapt to the dynamic environment of moving tissue, preventing detachment while maintaining strength.
4Ease of manufacture
If conventional implant structure is used, then ease of manufacture is maintained, but reliability deteriorates due to mechanical and chemical corrosion
Solution Approach 1:
The implant uses composite structures combining conductive wires with insulating sheaths and metallic films. These composite materials provide enhanced resistance to mechanical damage and chemical corrosion while remaining compatible with conventional fabrication techniques. The layered composite structure protects each component from corrosion and mechanical stress.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulating sheaths act as intermediary protective layers between the conductive wires and the corrosive biological environment. These intermediary structures prevent direct contact between the conductive wires and corrosive agents, while also providing mechanical protection, thereby improving reliability without significantly complicating the manufacturing process.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to an implant adapted to be implanted at least partially in a biological tissue (20). Today's implants remain very susceptible to mechanical damage. The inventors have thus developed an implant having a greater reliability in terms of resistance to mechanical stress than existing implants, while allowing for easy connection with different parts of a biological tissue. This implant comprises an implant body (30) and a set of electrically conductive wires (55), each wire (55) comprising a first portion (65) electrically connected to the body (30), a second portion (70) and a third portion (75) intended to be electrically connected to the tissue (20), The implant (10) comprises a set of arms (25) comprising each an insulating sheath (60) and a bundle (52) of wires (55), each bundle (52) comprising at least two subsets (62) of wires (55).