Design and Testing of a Novel Electrical Stimulator Base on Wrist- Ankle Acupuncture and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation

Abstract

This paper developed a novel electrical stimulator. This electrical stimulator, based on wrist-ankle acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), aimed at reliving pains. The electrical stimulator has wide band voltage adjustment (0V-100V with 3.3V power supply) with voltage-mode electrical stimulation (ES) circuit. The novel topology of the circuit was implemented without operational amplifier (OPAM) and the transformer was used. A boost converter was applied in the circuit to produce treatment voltage, meanwhile an H-Bridge to produce the required biphasic pulses to effectively reduce the tolerance and polarization reaction. The low treatment voltage was used to make this circuit safer for users. The circuit tests were carried out and a pain model was established on healthy volunteers. The experiment suggested that the stimulator had good effect on pain relief and meanwhile increased the pain threshold.