Development of a Novel All-solid-state Synergetic Pulse Generator for Biomedical Effects

Tumor treatment of irreversible electroporation (IRE) has achieved remarkable curative effect in clinical application. However, due to the limitation of pulse parameters, the region of tumor ablation is small, which cannot be conveniently applied in the treatment of large-size tumors. Recent studies show that high-voltage nanosecond pulse combined with low-voltage microsecond pulse can significantly increase ablation region. In order to study the biological effects of synergistic pulses, a novel topology of the all-solid-state synergistic pulse generator was proposed. By studying the topology structure, working principle, circuit simulation and prototype test, an all-solid-state synergistic pulse generator with adjustable parameters was developed by using semiconductor switch. The synergistic pulse sequence composed of high-voltage nanosecond pulses and low-voltage microsecond pulses can be output by the flexible control of switches. Carrying out the cytotoxicity test and flow cytometry, the results showed that synergistic pulses had better cell killing effect on Hepa 1–6 tumor cells. Meanwhile, monolayer ablation experiments further confirmed that synergistic pulses could produce larger ablation area with smaller energy. The development of the pulse generator meets the needs of tumor ablation of synergistic pulses, and lays a hardware foundation for further research on the bioelectrical effect of synergistic pulse and clinical application.