Injectable Electrode Protection Circuit for Over-Voltage Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing implantable electrodes lack effective over-voltage and over-current protection, posing risks to patients due to software-based limitations and insufficient hardware safeguards, particularly when transmitting electrical energy to deep tissue targets.
Innovation Solution
Incorporation of hardware-based over-voltage and over-current protection mechanisms, such as diodes and fuses, at various points in the electrical pathway, including the EPG, leads, and electrodes, to ensure safe electrical transmission to tissue targets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If software-based limitations are used for over-voltage and over-current protection, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability is insufficient due to potential software failures
Solution Approach 1:
The protection system is segmented into multiple independent components: software limitations in the EPG, hardware protection circuits in the EPG, and additional hardware protection at the electrode level. This segmentation ensures that failure of one component does not compromise the entire protection system, thereby improving reliability without requiring a single complex protection mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
Hardware protection circuits including fuses and over-voltage protection circuits are pre-installed in the EPG and at the electrode level before operation. These protective elements are positioned in advance to intercept and limit excessive voltage or current before they can reach the patient, providing proactive protection that does not depend on real-time software monitoring alone.
2Reliability
If multiple hardware protection mechanisms are added at various points in the electrical pathway, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The EPG is designed with multi-functional protection capabilities: it contains both software-based current/voltage limiting algorithms and hardware-based protection circuits (over-voltage protection circuits, fuses) that work together. This universal approach allows a single device to provide multiple layers of protection without requiring separate dedicated protection devices for each layer.
Solution Approach 2:
Hardware protection circuits act as intermediaries between the EPG's power output and the patient's body. These circuits include over-voltage protection circuits that clamp excessive voltage and fuses that break the circuit under over-current conditions, serving as passive protective mediators that automatically engage without requiring active control or monitoring.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If hardware protection circuits are integrated into the EPG and at the electrode level, then object-generated harmful factors are reduced, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Hardware protection elements such as fuses and over-voltage protection circuits are pre-integrated into the EPG during manufacturing before the device is assembled and deployed. This preliminary integration ensures that protection mechanisms are already in place and functional when the device is activated, eliminating the need for post-assembly configuration or activation steps.
Solution Approach 2:
Fuses are designed as disposable protective elements that are replaced after they have performed their protective function. Once a fuse blows to protect against over-current, it is discarded and replaced with a new fuse, simplifying the overall system design by using a simple, low-cost component that does not require complex recovery or reset mechanisms.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Provides patient-specific, hardware-assisted protection against unintentional over-voltage and over-current, enhancing safety and reliability of electrical stimulation systems.
Implementation Method 1
the twisted wire rope comprising strands of conductive wire configured so that some of the strands can loosen partially from and be spaced apart from the coils
Implementation Method 2
the EPG provides the waveform transcutaneously through at least two interfacing points to at least one bunched anchor/irregular shape of the implanted helical wire rope structure
Implementation Method 3
In another embodiment, the system further comprises a protective unit to prevent current or voltage above a safe level
Data Source
AI summary
A system for stimulating a tissue target in a body with an injectable electrode, either fully or partially implanted, may employ a protection device to prevent over-voltage or over-current from an external pulse generator (EPG) to the injectable electrode. Current is supplied from the EPG transcutaneously to the fully implanted injectable electrode and percutaneously to the partially implanted injectable electrode by various electrical connectors.