4 channel configurable constant-current/voltage mode biphasic implantable neurostimulator ASIC with channel centric active charge balancer

Abstract

Electrical stimulation is a technique that let inhibition or exhibition neuron activities with charge injection to a target tissue. Neural stimulators are used as a treatment method for diseases and the restoration of dysfunctional organs. Sacral Nerve Stimulation that is used for the treatment of bladder and urinary functions, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) that is used for the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, tremor, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Spinal Cord Stimulation that is used for the treatment of chronic pain syndrome, Retinal Stimulation that is used for recovering visual functions and Cochlear Stimulation that is used to recovering of hearing functions are some of the application fields of electrical/neural stimulation. Considering application fields, most neurostimulator/neuromodulation devices are implanted in the human body. These devices are battery-powered devices that have long battery life, because of that an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is needed for implantable applications considering application specifications like target nerve, power consumption and output properties. Neurostimulators interface with target neurons by using electrodes. Charge accumulation on an electrode-tissue interface may cause Ph variation of electrolyte, toxic surface creation between electrode-tissue interface and variation of electrode-tissue impedance. Most importantly, it may cause permanent nerve damage. Using biphasic stimulation and active charge balancer structure together is the preferred method to achieve ideally zero net charges on the target tissue. Constant-current stimulation, constant-voltage stimulation or constant-charge stimulation methods are presented in the literature. Constant-current stimulation is the safest stimulation method. Ideally, zero net charge on tissue may be achieved by controlling anodic and cathodic current amplitudes and durations in a biphasic manner. For constant-voltage stimulation, the amplitude of current that flows through the electrode-tissue interface is determined by the impedance of the electrode-tissue interface. Due to that reason, it is not easy to control transferred charge to tissue. Constant-charge stimulation is a useful method to achieve charge balancing by using switch-capacitor structures. The disadvantage of constant-charge stimulation is that it needs larger capacitors that cause some difficulties with on-chip implementation. In literature, neurostimulator ASICs are designed for only constant-current mode stimulation or only constant-voltage mode stimulation. Similarly, most charge balancer circuits are designed for just constant-current mode stimulation or constant-voltage mode stimulation. In this work, a novel active charge balancing scheme that works with both constant-current mode and constant-voltage mode for monopolar/bipolar/tripolar/quadripolar electrode polarities is proposed. Furthermore, a novel channel circuit and novel channel centric active charge balancer circuit topologies that support both constant-current and constant-voltage stimulation mode in the same structure are developed. Constant-voltage mode stimulation is considered the standard technique of DBS applications for a long time. On the other hand, constant-current mode stimulation is emerging as an alternative solution for DBS applications. Supporting both constant-current mode and constant-voltage mode with active charge balancing makes this work appropriate for DBS applications. The purpose of this work is to increase the flexibility and safety of neurostimulators because this work allows switching stimulation mode after surgery and supplies active charge balancing for both stimulation modes for safety. Neurostimulator ASIC is constructed by 4 channels. Each channel consists of N-Block, P-Block and Channel Centric Active Charge Balancer. Each channel is configurable to supply ground, 10 V, 0-1 mA configurable sink current or 0-1 mA configurable source current in constant-current stimulation mode. Each channel is configurable to supply ground, 10 V, 1-5 V configurable low voltage or 5-9 V configurable high voltage in constant-voltage stimulation mode. N-Block circuit is designed to supply ground, 0-1 mA configurable sink current or 1-5 V configurable low voltage. P-Block circuit is designed to supply 10 V (as VDD), 0-1 mA configurable source current or 5-9 V configurable high voltage. Stimulation period, anodic phase time and interphase delay time are configurable parameters. Cathodic phase duration is not configurable because it is controlled by using outputs of Channel Centric Active Charge Balancer asynchronously. N-Block and P-Block circuits are similar to each other and complementary structures. The supply voltage of the stimulator circuit was chosen as 10 V to prevent headroom problems. Considering high voltage supply requirements, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 0.18 um Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) technology process was chosen. Relatively high biasing currents and enable/disable circuits were used for analog blocks to achieve higher performance with lower power consumption. The actual channel current is estimated by using differences of internal currents. Internal currents are mirrored to channel centric active charge balancer circuit to estimate channel current and use it for charge balancing. Timing setting resolution was chosen as 1 us. All analog blocks that are used in N-Block and P-Block were designed in Cadence Virtuoso considering timing, voltage and process constraints. DC, AC, transient and stability simulations were run to verify analog subblocks with Cadence Spectre. Transient simulations were run to verify constant-current stimulation mode and constant-voltage stimulation mode behaviors of N-Block and P-Block. Maximum current error results for constant-current stimulation, maximum voltage error results for constant-voltage stimulation and channel current estimation error results for both stimulation modes are given as simulation results. Channel centric active charge balancer was designed with Cadence environment. Transient simulations were run considering stimulation duration and current amplitude boundaries to verify functionality and determine performance with Cadence Spectre. Charge errors are presented as simulation results. Register Transfer Level (RTL) design of the stimulator controller was designed with Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL). Synchronous state machines are used to implement the stimulator controller. Asynchronous digital circuits are used to handle outputs of active charge balancer circuits. The stimulator controller was synthesized by using Cadence Genus tool. Place and route process was performed by using Innovus tool. Digital blocks were integrated with analog blocks in Cadence Environment and Analog-Mixed Signal (AMS) simulations were run to verify the behavior of the neurostimulator ASIC for constant-current and constant-voltage stimulation modes with random test vectors. As a conclusion, 4 channel configurable constant-current/voltage mode biphasic implantable neurostimulator ASIC with channel centric active charge balancer was verified by using AMS simulations for both constant-current and constant-voltage stimulation modes. AMS simulation results show that the ASIC works functional and the proposed channel centric active charge balancing scheme is verified for both stimulation modes.