Implantable medical device incorporating adiabatic clock-powered logic

• US 6,415,181 B1
• Filed: 02/25/2000
• Issued: 07/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Original Assignee: Medtronic Incorporated (Medtronic Plc)
• Inventors: Schu, Carl A., Greeninger, Daniel R., Thompson, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): EVANISKO, GEORGE ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US09/513,045
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• Field of Search: 607/1, 607/2, 607/9, 607/8, 607/4, 607/5, 607/16
• US Class Current: 607/16
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/372 Arrangements in connection with the implantation of stimulators
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37512 Pacemakers

Abstract

Improved operating system architecture for an implantable medical device incorporating adiabatic clock-powered logic alone or in conjunction with conventional clocked logic or self-timed logic for reducing power consumption and increasing and improving processing capabilities is disclosed. The adiabatic clock-powered logic is employed to implement digital signal processors (DSPs) including analog to digital (ADC) signal converters, a state machine or the components of microprocessor cores, e.g., the CPU, arithmetic logic units (ALU), on-chip RAM and ROM and data and control buses, and other logic units, e.g., additional RAM and ROM, a direct memory address (DMA) controller, a block mover/reader, a cyclic redundancy code (CRC) calculator, and certain uplink and downlink telemetry signal processing stages. The adiabatic clocked CMOS logic is incorporated into the same IC or ICs with clocked CMOS logic and provides manufacturing economies.

Claims

1. An implantable medical device for at least one of delivering a therapy to a patient'"'"'s body and monitoring a physiologic condition of a patient comprising:

a battery providing battery energy; and

at least one integrated circuit comprising an operating system, powered by the battery energy, providing control and timing functions and further comprising;

a clock circuit powered by the battery energy providing adiabatic clock signals;

a clock tree routing the adiabatic clock signals;

at least one adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit formed on said at least one integrated circuit coupled with said clock tree and responsive to said adiabatic clock signals to perform a defined circuit function employing the energy of the adiabatic clock signal and in timed synchrony with the adiabatic clock signal; and

at least one self-timed logic circuit formed on said integrated circuit performing defined circuit functions independent of said adiabatic clock signals and not in timed synchrony with the adiabatic clock signals, whereby a clock tree is minimized and clock energy is conserved.

2. The implantable medical device of claim 1, further comprising:

means for sensing a physiologic condition of the patient and providing a physiologic signal; and

wherein;

said self-timed logic circuit further comprises a signal processor processing the physiologic signal, the signal processor comprising a plurality of self-timed logic elements formed into a chain, the chain receiving the physiologic signal at an input thereof, processing the physiologic signal, and providing the processed physiologic signal at an output after a self-timed logic propagation delay, and wherein said plurality of self-timed logic elements perform functions independent of and not in timed synchrony with said adiabatic clock signals.

3. The implantable medical device of claim 2, wherein the signal processor comprises a digital signal processor providing analog-to-digital conversion of the physiologic signal provided by said sensing means and signal processing of a digitized physiologic signal.

4. The implantable medical device of claim 2, wherein the signal processor comprises a digital signal processor providing analog-to-digital conversion of the physiologic signal provided by said sensing means and processing a digitized physiologic signal with reference to predetermined discrimination criteria, determining the presence or absence of a predefined characteristic of the physiologic signal, and providing a sense event signal upon determination of the predefined characteristic.

5. The implantable medical device of claim 4, wherein:

said adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit comprises at least one timer timing out time periods as multiples of the clock time period in response to a sense event signal; and

further comprising;

means responsive to time-out of a time period by said timer for performing a first device operation; and

means responsive to a sense event signal provided during time-out of a time period for performing a second device operation.

6. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein said self-timed logic further comprises:

a microcomputer comprising a microprocessor, a timing and control bus, and RAM/ROM memory storing data and operating instruction sets of device operation algorithms that operates pursuant to the stored data and operating instruction sets to establish timed out time periods and performing at least one of therapy delivery and monitoring functions.

7. The implantable medical device of claim 6, further comprising:

means for sensing a physiologic condition of the patient and providing a physiologic signal; and

wherein;

said self-timed logic circuit further comprises a signal processor processing the physiologic signal, said signal processor comprising a plurality of self-timed logic elements formed into a chain, the chain receiving the physiologic signal at an input thereof, processing the physiologic signal, and providing the processed physiologic signal at an output to said data and control bus after a self-timed logic propagation delay, and wherein said plurality of self-timed logic elements perform functions independent of and not in timed synchrony with said adiabatic clock signals.

8. The implantable medical device of claim 1, wherein said self-timed logic further comprises a plurality of self-timed logic elements formed into a chain receiving an input signal at an input thereof, processing the input signal and providing a processed output signal at an output thereof after a self-timed logic propagation delay, wherein said plurality of self-timed logic elements perform functions independent of and not in timed synchrony with said adiabatic clock signals.

9. An implantable medical device for at least one of delivering a therapy to a patient'"'"'s body and monitoring a physiologic condition of a patient, comprising:

a battery providing battery energy;

means for sensing a physiologic condition of the patient and providing a physiologic signal; and

at least one integrated circuit comprising an operating systems powered, by the battery energy, providing control and timing functions and further comprising;

a clock circuit powered by the battery energy providing adiabatic clock signals;

a clock tree routing the adiabatic clock signals; and

at least one adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit formed on said integrated circuit coupled with said clock tree and responsive to said adiabatic clock signals to perform a defined circuit function employing the energy of the adiabatic clock signal and in timed synchrony with the adiabatic clock signal, said adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit further comprising a signal processor coupled to receive said adiabatic clock signals, said signal processor processing the physiologic signal and comprising a plurality of adiabatic clock-powered logic elements formed into a chain, the chain receiving the physiologic signal at an input thereof, processing the physiologic signal and providing the processed physiologic signal at an output in timed relation to the adiabatic clock signal, wherein said adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit further comprises a plurality of self-timed logic elements formed into a chain, the chain receiving an input signal at an input thereof, processing the input signal and providing a processed output signal at an output thereof in timed relation to the adiabatic clock signal, and wherein said plurality of self-timed logic elements perform functions independent of and not in timed synchrony with said adiabatic clock signals.

10. The implantable medical device of claim 9, wherein the signal processor further comprises a digital signal processor providing analog-to-digital conversion of the physiologic signal provided by said sensing means and signal processing of the digitized physiologic signal.

11. The implantable medical device of claim 10, wherein the signal processor further comprises a digital signal processor providing analog-to-digital conversion of the physiologic signal provided by said sensing means and processing the digitized physiologic signal with reference to predetermined discrimination criteria, determining the presence or absence of a predefined characteristic of the physiologic signal, and providing a sense event signal upon determination of the pre-defined characteristic.

12. The implantable medical device of claim 11, further comprising:

means for sensing a sense event of the patient; and

wherein;

said adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit further comprises at least one timer timing out time periods as multiples of the clock time period; and

further comprising;

means responsive to time-out of a time period by said timer for performing a first device operation; and

means responsive to a sense event signal provided during time-out of a time period for performing a second device operation.

13. The implantable medical device of claim 9, wherein said adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit further comprises:

a microcomputer comprising a microprocessor, a timing and control bus, and RAM/ROM memory storing data and operating instruction sets of device operation algorithms operating pursuant to the stored data and operating instruction sets to establish timed out time periods and performing at least one of therapy delivery and monitoring functions.

14. The implantable medical device of claim 13, further comprising:

means for sensing a physiologic condition of the patient and providing a physiologic signal; and

wherein;

said adiabatic logic circuit further comprises a signal processor coupled to said adiabatic clock and processing the physiologic signal, said signal processor comprising a plurality of logic elements formed into a chain, the chain receiving the physiologic signal at an input thereof, processing the physiologic signal and providing the processed physiologic signal at an output in timed relation to the adiabatic clock signal.

22. The implantable pacing system of claim 11, further comprising:

means for sensing a physiologic condition of the patient and providing a physiologic signal; and

wherein;

said self-timed logic circuit further comprises a signal processor processing the physiologic signal, said signal processor comprising a plurality of self-timed logic elements formed into a chain, the chain receiving the physiologic signal at an input thereof, processing the physiologic signal, and providing the processed physiologic signal at an output to said data and control bus after a self-timed logic propagation delay, and wherein said plurality of self-timed logic elements perform functions independent of and not in timed synchrony with said adiabatic clock signals.

15. An implantable cardiac pacing system for sensing cardiac signals and delivering pacing pulses through pace/sense electrodes situated in one or more heart chamber comprising:

a battery providing battery energy; and

at least one integrated circuit comprising an operating system, powered by the battery energy, providing control and pacing timing functions and further comprising;

an adiabatic clock signal generator powered by the battery energy and providing adiabatic clock signals;

an adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit formed on said integrated circuit and responsive to said adiabatic clock signals to time-out a pacing escape interval;

a clock tree formed on the integrated circuit coupling said adiabatic clock signals to the adiabatic clock-powered circuit; and

at least one self-timed logic circuit formed on said integrated circuit performing defined circuit functions independent of said adiabatic clock signals and not in timed synchrony with the adiabatic clock signals, whereby the clock tree is minimized and clock energy is conserved; and

means responsive to time-out of the pacing escape interval for generating and delivering a pacing pulse to the pace/sense electrodes.

16. The implantable pacing system of claim 15, wherein:

said self-timed logic circuit further comprises a signal processor coupled with said pace/sense electrodes processing the cardiac signal, said signal processor comprising a plurality of self-timed logic elements formed into a chain, the chain receiving the cardiac signal at an input thereof, processing the cardiac signal, and providing the processed cardiac signal at an output after a self-timed logic propagation delay, and wherein said plurality of self-timed logic elements perform functions independent of and not in timed synchrony with said adiabatic clock signals.

17. The implantable pacing system of claim 16, wherein the signal processor comprises a digital signal processor providing analog-to-digital conversion of the cardiac signal and processing the digitized physiologic signal.

18. The implantable pacing system of claim 17, wherein the signal processor comprises a digital signal processor providing analog-to-digital conversion of the cardiac signal, processing the digitized cardiac signal with reference to predetermined discrimination criteria, determining the presence or absence of a predefined characteristic of the cardiac signal, and providing a sense event signal upon determination of the pre-defined characteristic.

19. The implantable pacing system of claim 18, further comprising:

means for restarting the time-out of the pacing escape interval in response to a sense event signal.

20. The implantable pacing system of claim 15, wherein said self-timed logic further comprises:

a memory having a plurality of memory locations; and

means for triggering storage of said processed cardiac signal in the plurality of memory locations.

21. The implantable pacing system of claim 15, wherein said self-timed logic further comprises a microcomputer comprising a microprocessor, a timing and control bus, and RAM/ROM memory storing data and operating instruction sets of device operation algorithms, the microcomputer operating pursuant to the stored data and operating instruction sets to establish timed out time periods and perform pacing pulse delivery and to adjust sensing criteria for sensing cardiac events.

23. An implantable medical monitor for periodically monitoring a physiologic condition of a patient comprising:

physiologic sensor means for developing a physiologic sense signal;

a battery providing battery energy;

at least one integrated circuit formed of self-timed logic circuits comprising an operating system providing control and timing functions and further comprising;

an adiabatic clock signal generator powered by the battery energy and providing adiabatic clock signals; and

an adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit formed on said integrated circuit and responsive to said adiabatic clock signals to time-out a monitoring interval and generate a trigger signal upon time-out of the monitoring interval;

means responsive to said trigger signal for triggering said physiologic sensor means to develop a physiologic sense signal; and

a self-timed logic circuit formed on said integrated circuit performing defined circuit functions independent of and not in timed synchrony with said adiabatic clock signals.

24. The implantable medical monitor of claim 23 further comprising a memory having memory locations storing the processed physiologic sense signal data, and wherein said physiologic sensor means further comprises:

a signal processor processing the physiologic sense signal each time the monitoring trigger signal is timed out, said signal processor comprising a plurality of self-timed logic elements formed into a chain, the chain receiving the physiologic signal at an input thereof, processing the physiologic signal, and providing the processed physiologic signal at an output after a self-timed logic propagation delay; and

means for triggering storage of the processed physiologic sense signal data in said memory locations.

25. The implantable monitor of claim 23, wherein the physiologic sensor means comprises sense electrodes sensing an electrical signal of a body organ or muscle.

26. The implantable monitor of claim 23, wherein the physiologic sensor means comprises sense electrodes sensing a cardiac signal.

27. The implantable monitor of claim 23, wherein the physiologic sensor means comprises a physiologic sensor sensing a condition or state of the body from among the group consisting of physical activity of the body, blood pressure, blood temperature, blood gas concentration, and blood pH.

28. An implantable medical device powered by a battery for delivering a therapy on a timed basis to a patient dependent upon a physiologic condition of a patient comprising:

physiologic sensor means for developing a physiologic sense signal;

a signal processor processing the physiologic sense signal, said signal processor comprising a plurality of self-timed logic elements formed into a chain, the chain receiving the physiologic signal at an input thereof, processing the physiologic signal, and providing the processed physiologic signal at an output after a self-timed logic propagation delay;

therapy delivery means for delivering a therapy to the patient in response to a therapy trigger signal;

a battery providing battery energy; and

at least one integrated circuit comprising an operating system receiving the processed physiologic signal and generating the therapy trigger signal, and further comprising;

an adiabatic clock signal generator powered by the battery energy and providing adiabatic clock signals; and

an adiabatic clock-powered logic circuit formed on said integrated circuit and responsive to said adiabatic clock signals to time-out a therapy delivery interval and generate a therapy trigger signal upon time-out of the therapy delivery interval, wherein said plurality of self-timed logic elements perform functions independent of and not in timed synchrony with said adiabatic clock signals.

29. The implantable medical device of claim 28, wherein the physiologic sensor means comprises sense electrodes sensing an electrical signal of a body organ or muscle.

30. The implantable monitor of claim 28, wherein the physiologic sensor means comprises sense electrodes sensing a cardiac signal.

31. The implantable monitor of claim 28, wherein the physiologic sensor means comprises a physiologic sensor sensing a condition or state of the body from among the group consisting of physical activity of the body, blood pressure, blood temperature, blood gas concentration, and blood pH.