ANTENNA SYSTEMS FOR IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICE TELEMETRY
First Claim
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1. A system for communicating with an implantable medical device, the system comprising:
- an external device adapted to be communicatively coupled to the implantable medical device via radio-frequency (RF) telemetry and adapted to control operation of the implantable medical device and receive data from the implantable medical device, the external device comprising;
a transceiver;
a phased-array directional antenna;
an antenna interface circuit coupled between the transceiver and the phased-array directional antenna; and
a controller coupled to the antenna interface circuit, the controller adapted to control an effective orientation of the phased-array directional antenna.
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Abstract
An implantable medical device system includes an implanted device communicating with an external device via telemetry. The implanted device and the external device each have a telemetry module connected to an antenna system to support a radio-frequency (RF) telemetry link. The antenna system of the external device has a manually or automatically controllable directionality. The controllable directionality is achieved, for example, by using two or more directional antennas, one non-directional antenna and one or more directional antennas, or an electronically steerable phased-array directional antenna.
113 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A system for communicating with an implantable medical device, the system comprising:
an external device adapted to be communicatively coupled to the implantable medical device via radio-frequency (RF) telemetry and adapted to control operation of the implantable medical device and receive data from the implantable medical device, the external device comprising;
a transceiver;
a phased-array directional antenna;
an antenna interface circuit coupled between the transceiver and the phased-array directional antenna; and
a controller coupled to the antenna interface circuit, the controller adapted to control an effective orientation of the phased-array directional antenna. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for communicating with an implantable medical device via radio-frequency (RF) telemetry, the method comprising:
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steering a phase-array directional antenna electronically to a plurality of effective orientations;
receiving an RF signal from the implantable medical device using the phase-array directional antenna at each effective orientation of the plurality of effective orientations;
analyzing a quality of the received RF signal to produce a set of one or more quality indicators associated with each effective orientation of the plurality of effective orientations; and
selecting an effective orientation from the plurality of effective orientations based on the sets of one or more quality indicators associated with the plurality of effective orientations. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An external system for communicating with an implantable medical device via radio-frequency (RF) telemetry, the system comprising:
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a phased-array antenna;
means for electronically steering the phased-array antenna to a plurality of effective orientations;
means for receiving an RF signal from the implantable medical device using the phased-array antenna;
means for analyzing a quality of the RF signal associated with each effective orientation of the plurality of effective orientations; and
means for selecting an effective orientation based on the quality of the RF signal associated with the each effective orientation of the plurality of effective orientations. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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Specification