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EP-4433147-B1 - ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT FOR DELIVERING BI-DIRECTIONAL ELECTRICAL STIMULATION

EP4433147B1EP 4433147 B1EP4433147 B1EP 4433147B1EP-4433147-B1

Inventors

  • VYSOKOV, Nickolai
  • TARASENKO, Illya

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20221228

Claims (13)

  1. A circuit arrangement (100) for delivering stimuli to a user, wherein the circuit arrangement comprises: a circuit (200) including a pair of current pumps including a first current pump (102, 202, 300) and a second current pump (104, 204, 400), and an inverting voltage mirror (106, 206, 500) to provide an inverted signal to at least one of the first current pump and a second current pump to control its operation, wherein the inverting voltage mirror is configured to maximize potential difference across nodes of the circuit.
  2. The circuit arrangement (100) according to claim 1, wherein the first current pump (102, 202, 300) and the second current pump (104, 204, 400) are located on the same side of a load (108).
  3. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the circuit (200) is connected to a power source.
  4. The circuit arrangement (100) according to claim 3, wherein the power source further includes at least one of a battery and a voltage boost circuit.
  5. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the inverting voltage mirror (106, 206, 500) is configured to ensure zero current flow when in its rest state.
  6. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the inverting voltage mirror (106, 206, 500) is located at the other side of the load (108) opposite to the first current pump (102, 202, 300) and the second current pump (104, 204, 400).
  7. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the circuit (200) is configured to create a potential difference across the load (108) required for supplying a predefined stimulus to the user.
  8. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the circuit arrangement (100) is configured to deliver at least one of a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and bipolar pulse stimulation.
  9. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the circuit (200), when in operation, delivers electric stimuli to the user and receives signals from skin of the user, simultaneously.
  10. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the circuit (200) includes a microprocessor configured to determine the parameters of stimulation.
  11. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the circuit (200) includes components for measurement of current supplied to the electrodes.
  12. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the circuit (200) includes components for measurement of voltages at the electrodes.
  13. The circuit arrangement (100) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein one or more components of the circuit (200) are arranged on an integrated circuit microchip.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to electronic circuits for providing, when in use, one or more electrical stimulations. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to an apparatus for providing bi-directional stimuli to a user. BACKGROUND It is known that electrical stimulation techniques have been used in various treatments to mitigate problems related to neuromuscular tissues, and also for improving physiological and mental well-being. Such stimulation techniques are beneficially implemented using apparatus comprising one or more modules, wherein a most relevant such module is a power or output stage, wherein the power or output stage is configured to deliver voltage or current signals of appropriate intensity to biological tissue, and wherein the signals can be applied to the biological tissue by at least one of non-invasive and invasive procedures. Commonly known stimulation techniques include electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), temporal interference stimulation (TI), Russian electrical stimulation, neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), functional electrical stimulation (FES), transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial alternating-current stimulation (tACS), transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS), transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and more. Additionally, electrical stimulation can be combined with other stimulation methods, such as stimulation by applying magnetic fields, visual stimulation, audio stimulation and so forth. All of the above electrical stimulation methods refer to the same fundamental process, namely applying electricity to a living body to increase or decrease activity in a nervous system or in muscles of the living body. The aforesaid different names for commonly known stimulation techniques derive from applying an electrical current in mutually different ways, to mutually different parts of the living body, or for different purposes. Generally speaking, the different names reflect either the intended use of the electrical stimulation or the characteristics of the stimulation itself. For example, EMS and Russian electrical stimulation are both generally intended for athletic training, but Russian stimulation uses high frequency sinusoidal waveforms, whereas EMS typically uses lower frequency rectangular waveforms. As another example, TENS apparatus are typically used for pain relief, whereas NMES apparatus are used to retrain muscles after an injury, even though both TENS and NMES apparatus use mutually similar stimulation waveforms. Furthermore, Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a stimulation treatment, commonly used for cognitive enhancement, but also employed for treatment of various neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease. tDCS uses direct electrical currents to stimulate specific parts of the brain. Specifically, in tDCS, a constant, low intensity current is passed between two electrodes placed over the head which modulates neuronal activity. Furthermore, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a stimulation treatment that uses alternating currents to stimulate specific parts of the brain. Specifically, in tACS, low-frequency currents (< 100 Hz) are applied; in the case of closed-loop phase-locked tACS, the exogenous oscillations are synchronized with the brain's endogenous frequency. Known existing circuits, employed in the aforesaid commonly used stimulation techniques, function by fixing a voltage at a first electrode to a specific value, while varying a voltage on a second electrode (as shown in Fig. 7) relative to the first electrode. In a situation where a power source to the circuits supplies a total voltage of V volts, a voltage at the first electrode is fixed at a value of V/2 volts and a voltage at the second electrode is varied between 0 and V volt. When the voltage at the second (variable) electrode is also set to the value of V/2 volts (FIG 7a), there will be zero net potential difference between the first and second electrodes, thus resulting in zero current flow between the first and second electrodes. If the potential of the second (variable) electrode is set to V (FIG 7b), then there will be a net potential difference of V/2 volts between the first and second electrodes. This will result in the flow of current from the second (variable) electrode at higher potential to the first electrode at lower potential (namely, the electrode with fixed voltage). When the voltage at the second (variable) electrode is set to a voltage below the value of V/2 volts, the current will flow in reverse direction, namely from the first (fixed) electrode to the second (variable) electrode (as shown in Fig 7c). As the current is proportional to the potential difference, wherein in the existing circuit the maximum potential difference across the electrodes is limited to half of the maximum value of the power source voltage V, this means that there exists a problem of underutil