System and method for enabling continued use of trim values within an implantable medical device following a parity error

• US 7,607,036 B1
• Filed: 06/12/2006
• Issued: 10/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pacesetter Incorporated (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Pacesetter Incorporated (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Huang, Renjie, Sutor, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Baker; Stephen M
• Application Number:
  US11/423,615
• Time in Patent Office: 1,226 Days
• Field of Search: 714/6, 714/805, 607/59
• US Class Current: 714/6.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/025 Digital circuitry features of electrotherapy devices, e.g. memory, clocks, processors
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/372 Arrangements in connection with the implantation of stimulators
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37264 Changing the program; Upgrading firmware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1666 where the redundant component is memory or memory area

Abstract

Techniques are described for use by an implantable medical device equipped to use trim values, which allow the device to continue to use trim values despite certain memory errors such as parity errors. Briefly, optimal trim values are stored within RAM. Nominal trim values are stored within ROM. Device functions are then performed using the trim values stored within RAM. If an error is detected indicative of possible corruption of RAM, then the trim values from ROM are loaded into RAM to enable continued operation of the device using the nominal trim values despite the error. In a preferred implementation, the optimized trim values are initially stored at two separate locations within RAM. A procedure is described herein for allowing the device to continue to use the optimized trim values following a device reset if no parity error is detected. If a parity error occurred, the device instead uses the nominal trim values from ROM.

Claims

1. A method for use with an implantable medical device equipped to use trim values, the method comprising:

storing a first set of trim values within a random access memory (RAM) of the device;

storing a second, different set of trim values within a read-only memory (ROM) of the device;

performing device functions using the trim values stored within RAM; and

detecting an error indicative of possible corruption of RAM and, in response, loading the trim values from ROM into RAM to enable continued operation of the device using trim values despite the error, wherein storing the first set of trim values within the first set of memory locations within RAM is performed by automatic test equipment (ATE) of the manufacturer following a test of the properties of the particular device.

2. A method for use with an implantable medical device equipped to use trim values, the method comprising:

storing a first set of trim values within a random access memory (RAM) of the device;

storing a second, different set of trim values within a read-only memory (ROM) of the device;

performing device functions using the trim values stored within RAM; and

detecting an error indicative of possible corruption of RAM and, in response, loading the trim values from ROM into RAM to enable continued operation of the device using trim values despite the error, wherein detecting an error indicative of possible corruption of RAM includes detecting a software reset and then determining whether the software reset was due to a parity error in RAM.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the steps of storing the first set of trim values within the first set of memory locations within RAM and storing the second, different set of trim values within the ROM are both performed prior to initial activation of the device.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the first set of trim values are initially stored both in first and second memory locations within RAM and wherein device functions are performed using the trim values stored within the first set of RAM locations.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein

if the software reset was due to a parity error, then the trim values from ROM are loaded into the first set of RAM locations to enable continued operation of the device using the second set of trim values;

and

if the software reset was not due to a parity error, then the trim values from the second set of RAM locations are loaded into the first set of RAM locations to enable continued operation of the device using the first set of trim values.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the first set of trim values stored in RAM are optimized trim values optimized for use with a subset of devices provided by a particular manufacturer and wherein the second set of trim values stored in ROM are nominal trim values appropriate for use with any of a larger set of devices provided by the same manufacturer.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the first set of trim values stored in RAM are optimized for the particular device and wherein the second set of trim values stored in ROM are appropriate for all devices of the same model provided by the same manufacturer.

8. A method for use with an implantable medical device having memory equipped to store trim values, the method comprising:

storing optimized trim values at trim value memory locations within random access memory (RAM) prior to operation of the device;

storing nominal trim values in read-only memory (ROM) prior to operation of the device;

upon activation of the device, loading the optimized trim values into separate RAM locations devoted to storing loaded trim values;

performing device functions using the loaded trim values under the control of device software;

detecting a software reset during operation of the device;

determining, in response, whether a parity error occurred in RAM;

if a parity error occurred, then loading the nominal trim values from ROM into the separate RAM locations devoted to storing loaded trim values to enable continued operation of the device using the nominal trim values despite the parity error; and

if a parity error did not occur, then reloading the optimized trim values from RAM into the separate RAM locations devoted to storing loaded trim values to enable continued operation of the device using optimized trim values.

9. A method for use with an implantable medical device equipped to use trim values and having a random access memory (RAM) storing a first set of trim values and having a read-only memory (ROM) storing a second, different set of trim values, the method comprising:

performing device functions using the trim values stored within RAM; and

detecting an error indicative of possible corruption of RAM and, in response, loading the trim values from ROM into RAM to enable continued operation of the device using the ROM trim values despite the error.

10. A system for use with an implantable medical device equipped to utilize trim values, the system comprising:

random access memory (RAM) operative to store a first set of trim values;

read-only memory (ROM) operative to store a second set of trim values; and

a trim value reset controller operative to detect an error indicative of possible corruption of RAM and, in response, loading the trim values from ROM into RAM to enable continued operation of the device using the ROM trim values despite the error, wherein the trim value reset controller is operative to detect an error indicative of possible corruption of RAM by detecting a software reset and then determining whether the software reset was due to a parity error in RAM.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the first set of trim values are stored both in first and second memory locations within RAM and wherein device functions are performed using the trim values stored within the first set of RAM locations.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein

if the software reset was due to a parity error, then the trim value reset controller loads the trim values from ROM into the first set of RAM locations to enable continued operation of the device using the second set of trim values;

and

if the software reset was not due to a parity error, then the trim value reset controller instead loads trim values from the second set of RAM locations into the first set of RAM locations to enable continued operation of the device using the first set of trim values.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the first set of trim values stored in RAM are optimized trim values optimized for use with a subset of devices provided by a particular manufacturer and wherein the second set of trim values stored in ROM are nominal trim values appropriate for use with any of a larger set of devices provided by the same manufacturer.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the first set of trim values stored in RAM are optimized for the particular device and wherein the second set of trim values stored in ROM are appropriate for all devices of the same model provided by the same manufacturer.

15. A system for use with an implantable medical device equipped to utilize trim values, the system comprising:

means for storing a first set of trim values within a random access memory (RAM) of the device;

means for storing a second set of trim values within a read-only memory (ROM) of the device; and

means for detecting an error indicative of possible corruption of RAM by detecting a software reset;

means for determining whether the software reset was due to a parity error in RAM and,

means for loading the trim values from ROM into RAM to enable continued operation of the device using the ROM trim values despite the error.