Santiago Martínez, Francisco Veirano, Timothy G. Constandinou, and Fernando Silveira presented a very interesting poster at the First Workshop on Active Implantable Medical Devices organized at LASCAS 2024.
The complete paper is available from IEEE:
S. Martínez, F. Veirano, T. G. Constandinou and F. Silveira, “Trends in Volumetric-Energy Efficiency of Implantable Neurostimulators: A Review From a Circuits and Systems Perspective,” in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 2-20, Feb. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2022.3228895.
I believe that this paper is especially important for developers in the AIMD Industry since it points out opportunities for improving the volumetric and energy efficiencies of neurostimulators.
The abstract for the paper reads:
“This paper presents a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art, commercially available neurostimulators. We analyse key design parameters and performance metrics of 45 implantable medical devices across six neural target categories: deep brain, vagus nerve, spinal cord, phrenic nerve, sacral nerve and hypoglossal nerve. We then benchmark these alongside modern cardiac pacemaker devices that represent a more established market. This work studies trends in device size, electrode number, battery technology (i.e., primary and secondary use and chemistry), power consumption and longevity. This information is analysed to show the course of design decisions adopted by industry and identifying opportunity for further innovation. We identify fundamental limits in power consumption, longevity and size as well as the interdependencies and trade-offs. We propose a figure of merit to quantify volumetric efficiency within specific therapeutic targets, battery technologies/capacities, charging capabilities and electrode count. Finally, we compare commercially available implantable medical devices with recently developed systems in the research community. We envisage this analysis to aid circuit and system designers in system optimisation and identifying innovation opportunities, particularly those related to low power circuit design techniques.”