A charge balancing technique for neurostimulators

Abstract

A charge balancing technique that is applicable to dual-edge current nerve stimulators is proposed herein, which is primarily directed to achieving charge balance by controlling discharge times. Compared to the charge balancing technique proposed in other papers, the number of single-cycle imbalanced charges is less than 15 pC. In order to reduce the amount of imbalanced charge, indirect shunt technology, leakage current compensation technology and offset voltage compensation technology was proposed in this paper to build up a synchronization system. To ensure that the neural stimulator can still be in charge balance after performing multiple stimulation cycles, a short pulse insertion technique is applied to the circuit. The circuit was designed based on the TSMC 180 nm process and verified its functionality under the Cadence platform.