A Fully Fail-Safe Capacitive-Based Charge Metering Method for Active Charge Balancing in Deep Brain Stimulation

Related to safety issues, charge balancing is a major concern in neural and functional electrical stimulation. This paper presents a capacitive-based charge metering method as a low-power and precise charge balancing method used in Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). In contrast to the previously presented capacitive-based charge metering methods, the proposed method does not need any precise and high-speed comparator for net-zero charge detection. It is proven that this method is insensitive to the delay and the offset of its components. Consequently, using ultra-low power components in the charge balancer is feasible. Furthermore, the proposed method properly supports any stimulation mode and waveform. The proposed approach along with voltage and current mode pulse generators was validated in a 0.9% saline solution by using a DBS lead.