SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR FLEXIBLE ELECTRODES

• US 20110237921A1
• Filed: 09/23/2010
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ripple, LLC
• Original Assignee: Ripple, LLC
• Inventors: McDonnall, Daniel, Askin, Robert E. III, Guillory, Kenneth S., Smith, Christopher F., Hiatt, Scott D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,061,134 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/377
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/24 Detecting, measuring or recording bioelectric or biomagnetic signals of the body or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/25 Bioelectric electrodes therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/291 for electroencephalography [EEG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/296 for electromyography [EMG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/685 Microneedles
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/04 Electrodes electrosurgical electrodes A61B18/14
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/05 for implantation or insertion into the body, e.g. heart electrode A61N1/06 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2203/0759 Forming a polymer layer by liquid coating, e.g. a non-metallic protective coating or an organic bonding layer
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/1216 by screen printing or stencil printing
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/125 by ink-jet printing

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for producing and using electrodes, which may be flexible and/or stretchable, and interconnection structures that can be used both externally and/or implanted within the body. Electrodes according to various embodiments disclosed herein may be produced by depositing patterned layers of insulating and conductive polymers to form multi-layer circuits. The conductive materials and layers in the structure can be exposed on the surface of the structures for use as electrodes. A plurality of electrodes may be formed into an electrode array. In various embodiments, electrode arrays may be associated with telemetry modules configured to wirelessly transmit data collected by the electrode array to a receiver module.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an electrode interface;

a conductive trace in electrical communication with the electrode interface;

an insulating layer disposed around the conductive trace and disposed around at least a portion of the electrode interface;

wherein the electrode interface, the conductive trace, and the insulating layer each comprise one or more polymers.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the conductive trace further comprises a plurality of conductive particles.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the plurality of conductive particles comprises at least one of:

conductive forms of carbon, metal particles, and composite materials comprising an interior particle coated with metal.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the conductive trace comprises a plurality of conductive micro-particles.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein each of the electrode interface, the conductive trace, and the insulating layer comprise are homogenous.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein each of the electrode interface, the conductive trace, and the insulating layer are heterogeneous.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the conductive trace and the insulating layer comprise one or more polymers that shrink and cause compression of the conductive particles.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the conductive trace comprises a conductive polymer.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the conductive polymer comprises one of polypyrrole, polyacetylene, polyaniline, and polydioctyl-bithiophene.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the insulating layer is transparent to an optical or infrared signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of electrical components in electrical communication with the conductive trace.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a printed circuit board to interconnect the plurality of electrical components and the conductive trace; and

wherein the insulating layer is disposed around the circuit board.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an electrode in electrical communication with the electrode interface.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the electrode further comprises at least one of a metal structure and a conductive polymer.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the electrode and the insulating layer each comprise a material safe for prolonged contact with internal tissues of a living organism.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the electrode comprises a material safe for prolonged contact with neural tissue.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of electrode interfaces;

a plurality of conductive traces, each of the plurality of conductive traces in electrical communication with at least one of the plurality of electrode interfaces.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

a plurality of signal processing components in electrical communication with the plurality of electrodes through a plurality of external interfaces that are fewer in number than the plurality of electrodes; and

a percutaneous connector in electrical communication with the plurality of external interfaces.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the insulating layer comprises a plurality of layers, each layer being at least partially insulated against adjacent layers, and wherein the plurality of conductive traces are disposed within the plurality of insulating layers.

20. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of electrode interfaces; and

a plurality of conductive traces, each of the plurality of conductive traces in electrical communication with at least one of the plurality of electrode interfaces.

21. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a connector assembly interface in electrical communication with the conductive trace.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising:

a percutaneous connector assembly.

23. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more polymers comprise an elastomeric polymer.

26. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a stimulator in electrical communication with the conductive trace to generate an electrical signal to be transmitted to the electrode interface.

27. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an amplifier in electrical communication with the conductive trace and configured to receive a signal transmitted by the conductive trace and amplify the signal.

28. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the insulating layer is continuous along the entirety of the conductive trace.

29. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the conductive trace has an electrical impedance between 0.01 and 1,000 ohms per centimeter.

24. The apparatus of 24, wherein the elastomeric polymer is stretchable by at least 25%.

25. The apparatus of 24, wherein the elastomeric polymer is stretchable by at least 10%.

30. A system, comprising:

an electrode assembly, comprising;

a plurality of electrodes;

a plurality of electrode interfaces, each of the plurality of electrode interfaces in electrical communication with at least one of the plurality of electrodes;

a plurality of conductive traces, each of the plurality of conductive traces in electrical communication with at least one of the plurality of electrode interfaces;

a telemetry module in electrical communication with the electrode assembly, the telemetry module comprising;

a telemetry module data communications system;

a telemetry module power system;

an insulating layer disposed around the plurality of conductive traces, disposed around at least a portion of each of the plurality of electrode interfaces, and disposed around the telemetry module;

wherein the plurality of electrode interfaces, the plurality of conductive traces, and the insulating layer each comprise one or more polymers.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the plurality of electrodes are disposed in a grid.

32. The system of claim 30, further comprising a plurality of electrical components in electrical communication with the plurality of conductive traces, and wherein the insulating layer is disposed around the plurality of electrical components.

33. The system of claim 32, further comprising:

a printed circuit board to interconnect the plurality of electrical components and the plurality of conductive traces, and wherein the insulating layer is disposed around the printed circuit board.

34. The system of claim 30, wherein the telemetry module power system further comprises a coil to receive power by way of inductive coupling in electrical communication with the electrode assembly.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein the telemetry module power system further comprises a battery.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein the telemetry module data communications system further comprises a first wireless data transceiver.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the first wireless data transceiver comprises an infrared transceiver.

38. The system of claim 36, wherein the first wireless data transceiver comprises a radio frequency transceiver.

39. The system of claim 36, wherein the first wireless transmitter comprises an infrared transmitter.

40. The system of claim 36, further comprising a receiver module.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the receiver module further comprises a second wireless transceiver to communicate data with the first wireless transceiver.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the receiver module further comprises an alignment indicator configured to provide an indication of the alignment of the receiver module with respect to the first wireless transmitter based on the strength of a data signal transmitted between the first wireless transmitter and the second wireless transmitter.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the alignment indicator comprises a light emitting diode.

44. The system of claim 41, further comprising an interface adapter configured to couple to a neural instrumentation system.

45. A method, comprising:

placing a sensor assembly in contact with a neural system, the sensor comprising;

an electrode;

an electrode interface in electrical communication with the electrode;

a conductive trace in electrical communication with the electrode interface;

a transmitter in electrical communication with the plurality of conductive traces; and

an insulating layer disposed around the conductive trace and disposed around at least a portion of the electrode interface, wherein the electrode interface, the conductive trace, and the insulating layer each comprise one or more polymers;

generating a data signal based on the electrical activity of the neural system and detected by the sensor;

transmitting the data signal from the transmitter to a receiver; and

recording at least a portion of the data signal using a neural instrumentation system.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising:

inductively coupling a first coil in electrical communication with the sensor assembly with a second coil in electrical communication with a power source to transmit electrical power to the sensor assembly.

47. The method of claim 45, further comprising:

generating an alignment indicator based on the signal strength of the data signal received by the receiver.

48. The method of claim 45, wherein wirelessly transmitting the data signal from the wireless transmitter to the receiver comprises transmitting the data signal using an infrared signal.

49. A method, comprising:

depositing a first layer of insulating polymer;

depositing a conductive polymer trace;

forming an electrode interface in electrical communication with the conductive polymer trace; and

depositing a second layer of insulating polymer.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein each of the first layer of insulating polymer, the conductive polymer trace, and the second layer of insulating polymer are directly deposited.

51. The method of claim 49, wherein each of the first layer of insulating polymer, the conductive polymer trace, and the second layer of insulating polymer are deposited using an ink jet process.

52. The method of claim 49, wherein each of the first layer of insulating polymer, the conductive polymer trace, and the second layer of insulating polymer are deposited using a screen printing method.

53. The method of claim 49, wherein the first layer of insulating polymer in the second layer of insulating polymer each comprise a bio stable polymer.

54. An apparatus, comprising:

a transducer interface;

a conductive trace in electrical communication with the transducer interface;

an insulating layer disposed around the conductive trace and disposed around at least a portion of the transducer interface;

wherein the transducer interface, the conductive trace, and the insulating layer each comprise one or more polymers.

55. The apparatus of claim 54, comprising:

a transducer in electrical communication with the transducer interface, and wherein the transducer comprises one of a chemical, mechanical, and electrical transducer.

56. A method, comprising:

placing a stimulation assembly in contact with a neural system, the stimulation assembly comprising;

an electrode;

an electrode interface in electrical communication with the electrode;

a conductive trace in electrical communication with the electrode interface;

an insulating layer disposed around the conductive trace and disposed around at least a portion of the electrode interface, wherein the electrode interface, the conductive trace, and the insulating layer each comprise one or more polymers;

generating a stimulation signal to be transmitted to the neural system;

transmitting the stimulation signal to the neural system using the stimulation assembly.