The design and construction of a portable multichannel spinal cord stimulator based on pic18f452 microcontroller

Abstract

Spinal Cord Stimulation is a physical therapy utilizing electrical impulses, pulses or patient specific waveforms to block pain. There has been a persistent search for a non-destructive, non-invasive, and effective way of relieving pain. Two different types of designs may be realized: Bed-side type [portable] or implantation/the surgical type. This work is made of three parts: Hardware (H/W) and software designs (S/W) and interface electronics introducing the system to external medical systems. The PIC18F452 Microcomputer based spinal cord stimulator generates three different types of signals: a variable saw-tooth wave with a minimum duty pulse width of 50 ?s, a variable triangular wave with a minimum duty pulse width of 100 ?s and a symmetrical variable impulse with a minimum duty pulse width of 25 ?s is described. Three parameters are software controlled, namely amplitude, frequency and duty-cycle. Hardware and software designs are explained. The frequency, duty-cycle and amplitudes of the pulses can be altered by software control making it a versatile stimulator. The stimulators architecture is designed to be modular and therefore its different blocks can be reused as standard building blocks.