PRECOMPENSATING FOR UNDESIRED ELECTRICAL RESPONSES OF RECEIVER COMPONENTS OF AN IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICE

• US 20110054571A1
• Filed: 08/31/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Corndorf, Eric D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,346,190 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/60
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0209 adapted for power saving
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37235 Aspects of the external programmer
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37276 characterised by means for reducing power consumption during telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/24 Inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer

Abstract

This disclosure describes to techniques to compensate for distortions introduced into received signals by one or more receiver components that have undesirable electrical responses, such as nonlinear phase response, sloped (or non-flat) amplitude response or both. An external device or other device with more power resources than an IMD filters signals to be transmitted to the IMD to pre-compensate for distortions introduced by the undesired electrical responses of the one or more receiver components of the IMD. In this manner, at least a portion of the burden of digital processing to compensate for undesired electrical responses of the receiver components is shifted from the IMD to the external device, which is better equipped to perform such heavy computationally complex functions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating a signal for transmission to an implantable medical device;

applying a pre-compensation filter to the generated signal to pre-compensate for an undesired electrical response of one or more components of a transceiver of the implantable medical device; and

transmitting the pre-compensated signal to the implantable medical device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a plurality of pre-compensation filters, each of the plurality of pre-compensation filters corresponding to one of a plurality of channels of a frequency band; and

selecting one of the plurality of pre-compensation filters to apply to the generated signal based on the one of the plurality of channels selected for transmitting the signal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the pre-compensation filter comprises applying the pre-compensation filter to pre-compensate for the undesired electrical response of a band pass channel filter.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein applying the pre-compensation filter to pre-compensate for the undesired electrical response of the band pass channel filter comprises applying the pre-compensation filter to pre-compensate for the undesired electrical response of a radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) filter.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the signal with the transceiver of the implantable medical device; and

applying a post compensation filter to the received signal to compensate for the undesired electrical response of the one or more components that remains after the pre-compensation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the pre-compensation filter comprises applying the pre-compensation filter to pre-compensate for the undesired electrical response of at least two components of the transceiver of the implantable medical device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the pre-compensation filter comprises applying the pre-compensation filter to pre-compensate for one of a nonlinear phase response and a sloped amplitude response of one or more components of the implantable medical device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the pre-compensation filter comprises applying the pre-compensation filter to reduce energy consumption at the implantable medical device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the pre-compensation filter comprises applying the pre-compensation filter to pre-compensate for nonlinearities of a channel on which the signal is to be transmitted.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-compensation filter comprises one of a finite impulse response (FIR) filter and an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter.

11. A device comprising:

a transceiver that includes at least one pre-compensation filter that filters a signal generated for transmission to an implantable medical device to pre-compensate for an undesired electrical response of one or more components of a transceiver of the implantable medical device; and

an antenna coupled to the transceiver that transmits the pre-compensated signal to the implantable medical device.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the transceiver includes a plurality of pre-compensation filters, each of the plurality of pre-compensation filters corresponding to one of a plurality of channels of a frequency band, and selects one of the plurality of pre-compensation filters to apply to the generated signal based on the one of the plurality of channels selected for transmitting the signal.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein the at least one pre-compensation filter pre-compensates for the undesired electrical response of a band-pass channel filter.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein the at least one pre-compensation filter pre-compensates for the undesired electrical response of at least two components of the transceiver of the implantable medical device.

15. The device of claim 11, the at least one pre-compensation filter pre-compensates for one of a nonlinear phase response and a sloped amplitude response of one or more components of the implantable medical device.

16. The device of claim 11, wherein the pre-compensation filter comprises one of a finite impulse response (FIR) filter and an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter.

17. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a device to:

generate a signal for transmission to an implantable medical device;

apply a pre-compensation filter to the generated signal to pre-compensate for an undesired electrical response of one or more components of a transceiver of the implantable medical device; and

transmit the pre-compensated signal to the implantable medical device.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the device to:

maintain a plurality of pre-compensation filters, each of the plurality of pre-compensation filters corresponding to one of a plurality of channels of a frequency band; and

select one of the plurality of pre-compensation filters to apply to the generated signal based on the one of the plurality of channels selected for transmitting the signal.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the pre-compensation filter pre-compensates for one of a nonlinear phase response and a sloped amplitude response of the one or more components of the transceiver of the implantable medical device.

20. A system comprising:

an implantable medical device comprising at least one receiver component that has an undesired electrical response; and

an external device that transmits signals to the implantable medical device, wherein the external device includes a pre-compensation filter that is applied to the signals prior to transmission of the signals to pre-compensate for at least a portion of an undesired electrical response of the at least one receiver component of the implantable medical device.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein:

the implantable medical device includes a plurality of band pass channel filters each of which corresponds with a respective one of a plurality of channels of a frequency band; and

the external device maintains a plurality of pre-compensation filters each of which pre-compensates for the undesired electrical response of a respective one of the plurality of band pass channel filters, and the external device selects one of the plurality of pre-compensation filters to apply to the signals based on the one of the plurality of channels selected for transmitting the signal.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the band pass channel filters comprises radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) filters.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the implantable medical device further comprises at least one post-compensation filter that is applied to the signals received from the external device to compensate for the portion of the undesired electrical response of the at least one receiver component not accounted for in the pre-compensation.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the pre-compensation filter of the external device pre-compensates for undesired electrical responses of at least two receiver components of the implantable medical device.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the pre-compensation filter of the external device pre-compensates for one of a nonlinear phase response and a sloped amplitude response of the at least one receiver components of the implantable medical device.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the pre-compensation filter pre-compensates for nonlinearities of a channel on which the signal is to be transmitted in addition to the undesired electrical response of the at least one receiver component.

27. The system of claim 20, wherein the pre-compensation filter comprises one of a finite impulse response (FIR) filter and an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter.