External charger with customizable magnetic charging field
First Claim
1. A method for charging at least one implantable medical device using an external charger comprising a plurality of coils positioned radially symmetrically about a main axis, the method comprising:
- differently activating one or more of the plurality of coils in the external charger to create a magnetic charging field that is radially asymmetric with respect to the main axis, wherein the plurality of coils are differently activated in accordance with at least one coupling parameter, wherein each coupling parameter is indicative of the coupling between one of the coils and one implantable medical device.
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Abstract
Improved external chargers for charging an implantable medical device, and particularly useful in charging a plurality of such devices, are disclosed. Each of the various embodiments include a plurality of field customization coils for customizing the magnetic charging field generated by the external charger such that the magnetic charging field is not radially symmetric. For example, one embodiment includes a primary coil with a plurality of field customization coils distributed radially with respect to the coil. The generated magnetic charging field can be rendered radially asymmetric by selectively activating or disabling the field customization coils in response to data quantifying the coupling between the various implants and the field customization coils in the charger. If there is a relatively high coupling between a particular implant and a particular customization coil for example, that customization coil can be activated to counter the magnetic charging field at that location, while still maintaining a relatively high magnetic charging field at the location of other implants that may have lower couplings.
15 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for charging at least one implantable medical device using an external charger comprising a plurality of coils positioned radially symmetrically about a main axis, the method comprising:
differently activating one or more of the plurality of coils in the external charger to create a magnetic charging field that is radially asymmetric with respect to the main axis, wherein the plurality of coils are differently activated in accordance with at least one coupling parameter, wherein each coupling parameter is indicative of the coupling between one of the coils and one implantable medical device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An external charger for charging at least one implantable medical device, comprising:
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a plurality of coils positioned radially symmetrically about a main axis; wherein one or more of the plurality of coils is configured to be differently activated to create a magnetic charging field that is radially asymmetric with respect to the main axis, and wherein the different activation of one or more of the plurality of coils is configured to occur in accordance with at least one coupling parameter, wherein each coupling parameter is indicative of the coupling between one of the coils and one implantable medical device. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification