Abstract
The design of safe stimulation protocols for functional electrostimulation requires knowledge of the “maximum reversible charge injection capacity” of the implantable microelectrodes. One of the main difficulties encountered in characterizing such microelectrodes is the calculation of the access voltage Va. This paper proposes a method to calculate Va that does not require prior knowledge of the overpotential terms and of the electrolyte (or excitable tissue) resistance, which is an advantage for in vivo electrochemical characterization of microelectrodes. To validate this method, we compare the calculated results with those obtained from conventional methods for characterizing three flexible platinum microelectrodes by cyclic voltammetry and voltage transient measurements. This paper presents the experimental setup, the required instrumentation, and the signal processing.
Highlights
Functional electrostimulation is a technique which consists in applying an electric pulse sequence to a muscle or nerve, to generate body movements or to restore voluntary motor functions which are paralyzed due to injury to the central nervous system
We describe the development of a measurement setup and an automated calculation method to determine the charge injection capacity” (CIC) of implantable microelectrodes
We proposed and implemented a method to calculate the access voltage that overcomes the limitations of conventional methods
Summary
Functional electrostimulation is a technique which consists in applying an electric pulse sequence to a muscle or nerve, to generate body movements or to restore voluntary motor functions which are paralyzed due to injury to the central nervous system. Some of the emerging biomedical applications require the development of smaller electrodes because they must provide high spatial resolution; i.e., the application of stimuli must be highly selective Such microelectrodes are required to deliver charge densities that exceed the traditional damage threshold, and the charge density is close to safe limits at clinically effective levels [14]. Microelectrodes are characterized by high electrical impedance and not enough charge injection capacity for some therapeutic applications because of their small geometric surface area (GSA). For this reason, alloys or coatings with high surface roughness are commonly used
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