DIVERSITY ANTENNAS FOR NEUROSTIMULATOR PROGRAMMING DEVICES
First Claim
1. A method of communicating with an implantable medical device, comprising:
- providing a programmer having a plurality of diversity antennas, the diversity antennas being configured to send wireless signals to the implantable medical device;
selecting a subset of the diversity antennas;
establishing a communications link between the programmer and the implantable medical device through the selected subset of the diversity antennas;
measuring a link quality of the communications link; and
selecting a different subset of the diversity antennas to communicate with the implantable medical device if the link quality falls below a predetermined threshold.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present disclosure involves a method of communicating with an implantable medical device. A programmer is provided. The programmer has a plurality of diversity antennas. The diversity antennas are configured to send wireless signals to the implantable medical device. A subset of the diversity antennas is selected. A communications link is established between the programmer and the implantable medical device through the selected subset of the diversity antennas. A link quality of the communications link is measured. A different subset of the diversity antennas is selected to communicate with the implantable medical device if the link quality falls below a predetermined threshold.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method of communicating with an implantable medical device, comprising:
-
providing a programmer having a plurality of diversity antennas, the diversity antennas being configured to send wireless signals to the implantable medical device; selecting a subset of the diversity antennas; establishing a communications link between the programmer and the implantable medical device through the selected subset of the diversity antennas; measuring a link quality of the communications link; and selecting a different subset of the diversity antennas to communicate with the implantable medical device if the link quality falls below a predetermined threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A method of communicating with an implantable medical device, comprising:
-
selecting a first subset of a plurality of antennas, wherein the plurality of antennas are located on a circuit board of an electronic programmer for an implantable medical device and are configured to conduct wireless communication with the implantable medical device; forming a communications link between the electronic programmer and the implantable medical device through the first subset of antennas; measuring a quality of the communications link; and selecting a second subset of the antennas to communicate with the implantable medical device if the measured quality of the communications link is less than a predetermined threshold, wherein the second subset is different from the first subset. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method of communicating with an implantable medical device, comprising:
-
selecting a first subset of a plurality of antennas, wherein the plurality of antennas are located on an electronic programmer for an implantable pulse generator (IPG) and are configured to conduct wireless communication with the IPG, wherein at least some of the plurality of antennas have different locations on the electronic programmer, or different physical orientations, or different physical attributes with respect to size and geometry; establishing a communications link between the electronic programmer and the IPG through the first subset of antennas; evaluating a quality of the communications link, wherein the quality of the communications link is evaluated based one or more of the following factors;
a number of packet retransmissions, a number of bit errors corrected, and whether any packet reached a retransmission limit and was dropped; andselecting a second subset of the antennas to support the communications link with the IPG in response to the quality of the communications link falling below a predetermined threshold, wherein the second subset is different from the first subset. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
-
Specification