New developments for high performance implantable stimulators: first 3 Mbps up to 4.46 Mbps demodulator chip through a wireless transcutaneous link

A new telemetry system has been developed in order to fit with the common characteristics of future high performance radio-powered implantable stimulators which are requiring as high as possible data bit rate to control higher number of electrodes and/or accurate definition in the stimulus waveforms with enough power transfer. The chip developed allows one to demodulate and decode the information coming though a wireless transcutaneous link with data bit rates from 1.30 Mbps to 4.46 Mbps. Because of this high data bit rate and to maintain a low bit error rate (BER), the chip works properly with an inductive coupling link quite similar to current cochlear implants. From experimental results and with the current status of the system, the best trade-off between power transfer, BER and tolerance to angular and lateral coil misalignments makes feasible the use of the system demodulating 3 Mbps.