A charge-balanced pulse generator for nerve stimulation applications

Nerve stimulation typically employs charge-balanced current injection with a delay between the cathodal and anodal phases. Typically these waveforms are produced using a microprocessor. However, once appropriate stimulus parameters are chosen, they tend to remain fixed within an application, making computational power unnecessary. In such cases, it would be advantageous to replace the microprocessor with integrated circuitry and hardware controls for maintaining fixed pulse parameters. We describe here an architecture that generates controllable charge-balanced pulses but requires no computer processing components. The circuitry has been engineered such that minimum size and power consumption can be achieved when fabricated into an IC chip, making it ideal for many long term, portable nerve stimulation devices and applications.