Segmented Guide Tube for Implantable Electrode Insertion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional microfabricated electrode arrays lack mechanical robustness for insertion into tissue and require a guide tube for support, but removing the guide tube while maintaining the electrode array's position is challenging due to potential electrical shorting during decoupling of electrical subsystems.
Innovation Solution
A guide tube made of rigid materials with features such as slits, perforation lines, or flexible sections that allow for transition between active and inactive modes, enabling removal without decoupling the electrical subsystems, and potentially made from resorbable materials to remain implanted.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a guide tube is used to provide mechanical support during insertion, then the electrode array can be inserted into tissue without buckling, but the guide tube cannot be removed without decoupling the electrical subsystem which risks electrical shorting
Solution Approach 1:
The guide tube is divided into two functional segments: a rigid proximal portion for mechanical support during insertion, and a flexible distal portion that allows removal. This segmentation enables the tube to provide structural strength when needed while allowing safe removal without decoupling electrical subsystems.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide tube transitions from a static rigid structure to a dynamic structure with flexible sections. The flexible distal portion allows the tube to adapt during removal, enabling the guide tube to be withdrawn while maintaining electrical connections intact, thus avoiding electrical shorting risks.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the guide tube is made rigid to maintain straight trajectory during insertion, then buckling is prevented, but the guide tube cannot allow free movement of the electrode array with tissue
Solution Approach 1:
Different portions of the guide tube have different mechanical properties: the proximal portion is rigid to maintain trajectory stability during insertion, while the distal portion is flexible to accommodate tissue movement. This local differentiation of material properties resolves the contradiction between stability and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide tube incorporates dynamic flexibility in its distal portion, allowing it to transition from a rigid insertion path to a flexible state that moves with tissue. This dynamic property enables the tube to maintain trajectory during insertion while accommodating physiological movements afterward.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus comprising an electrode subsystem configured to interface to biological tissue, an electronic subsystem electrically coupled to the electrode subsystem by a connector, and a guide tube disposed over at least a portion of the electrode subsystem and the connector. The guide tube includes material to provide stiffness to the electrode subsystem and the connector in an axial direction of the guide tube. The guide tube material is removable from the electrode subsystem and the connector over the electronic subsystem when the electrode subsystem is positioned to interface to the biological tissue and while the electronic subsystem remains electrically coupled to the electrode subsystem.