• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.395-400
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• 2010

Hypertension is the chronic disease that the 16% of total population are suffering, and it needs to be studied to find alternative treatment because of the tolerance and side effect of medications that may bother some patients. in this paper, we verified practicality of implantable electrical stimulator that can readily change stimulus magnitude and frequency. And this device is possible to stimulate baroreflex or parasympathetic nerve. Therefore we performed in vitro tests and animal experiment for device's operating conditions. This device consist of implantable electrical stimulator and extracorporeal control/monitoring system. Stimulator was designed to make 1Hz~100Hz pulses and it can change continuous or periodic pulse train type. And this device can control stimulator's function and monitor stimulator's status and patients' blood pressure at exterior of body using ZigBee module as wireless telecommunication. We verified that stimulator have error rate under 5% at 50mm depth of organs and, stimulator makes high-efficiency energy with closer position of two electrodes. Also we can confirm the performance of device that decreasing blood pressure and heart rate of a rat by electrical stimulation.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.201-211
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• 2004

This paper introduces a development of an electrical stimulator for auditory stimulation. The electrical stimulator is useful in neurotological diagnosis, audiological evaluation, candidate selection for cochlear implantation, optimal device selection and decision making of MAP strategy for severe-to-profound hearing impaired persons. The development was based on sound parameters of auditory brainstem responses and auditory electrophysiological characteristic such as effective firing of auditory nerve and recording evoked potentials during refractory period of neuron. Besides pulse parameter could adjustable by programming for more varied electrical stimulation evoked response audiometry. Using the electrical stimulator, electrical square pulse was applied to promontory, and electrically evoked auditory brainstem response and electrically middle latency response were successfully recorded in cats.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1992 no.05
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• pp.203-208
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• 1992

In order to restore the gait function by functional electrical stimulation(FES) in hemiplegic patients, an electrical stimulator and foot sensor were developed on the basis of optimal parameters which resulted from animal experiments. Physical properties of the soleus muscle were quite different from those of themedial gastrocnemius muscle, that is, the former had a characteristic or slow muscle and the letter had a characteristic of fast muscle in rats. Optimal parameters for electrical stimulation were 0.2ms of pulse width and 20Hz of frequency in the soleus muscle and 0.3ms, 40Hz in the medial gastrocnemius muscle. Amplitude modulated electrical stimulator with -15V of maximal output was made and automatic on-off time if the stimulator was 5 seconds. The foot sensor composed of 3 sensors in 3 pressure points of the foot was made in order to control the gai t function by closed loop feedback system. The gait function was improved by using the stimulator and foot sensor in peroneal palsy. These results suggest that the electrical stimulator with closed loop feedback system may restore the gait function in hemiplegic patients.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.109-111
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• 1989

An electrical stimulator was designed to induce locomotion for paraplegic patients caused by central nervous system injury. Optimal stimulus parameters, which can minimize muscle fatigue and can achieve effective muscle contraction were determined in slow and fast muscles in Sprague-Dawley rats. Stimulus patterns of our stimulator were designed to simulate electromyographic activity monitored during locomotion of normal subjects. Muscle types of the lower extremity were classified according to their mechanical property of contraction, which are slow muscle (msoleus m.) and fast muscle (medial gastrocneminus m., rectus femoris m., vastus lateralis m.). Optimal parameters of electrical stimulation for slow muscles were 20 Hz, 0.2 ms square pulse. For fast muscle, 40 Hz, 0.3 ms square pulse was optimal to produce repeated contraction. Higher stimulus intensity was required when synergistic muscles were stimulated simultaneously than when they were stimulated individually. Electrical stimulation for each muscle was designed to generate bipedal locomotion, so that individual muscles alternate contraction and relaxation to simulate stance and swing phases. Portable electrical stimulator with 16 channels built in microprocessor was constructed and applied to paraplegic patients due to lumbar cord injury. The electrical stimulator restored partially gait function in paraplegic patients.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.429-438
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• 1994

An electrical stimulator was designed to induce locomotion for paraplegic patients caused by central nervous system injury. Optimal stimulus parameters, which can minimize muscle fatigue and can achieve effective muscle contraction were determined in slow and fast muscles in Sprague-Dawley rats. Stimulus patterns of our stimulator were designed to simulate eleclromyographic activity monitored during locomotion of normal subjects. Muscle types of the lower extremity were classified according to their mechanical property of contraction, which are slow muscle (msoleus m.) and fast muscle (medial gastrocnemius m., rectus femoris m., vastus lateralis m.). Optimal parameters of electrical stimulation for slow muscles were 20 Hz, 0.2 ms square pulse. For fast muscle, 40 Hz, 0.3 ms square pulse was optimal to produce repeated contraction. Higher'stimulus intensity was required when synergistic muscles were stimulated simultaneously than when they were stimulated individually. Electrical stimulation for each muscle was designed to generate bipedal locomotion, so that individual muscles alternate contraction and relaxation to simulate stance and swing phases. Portable electrical stimulator with 16 channels built in microprocessor was constructed and applied to paraplegic patients due to lumbar cord injury. The electrical slimulator restored partially gait function in paraplegic patients.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.10b
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• pp.373-375
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to develop the Plastic Cortex Stimulator(PCS) for stroke patients using ZigBee technology. The PCS consists of an implantable neuro-stimulator and a user controller, The neuro-stimulator has the stimulus circuit which is the H-bridge circuit to generate a bipolar pulse. The bipolar pulse is known to be effective for stroke recovery. The user controller sends several wave-shape parameters (amplitude, pulse width, cycle, etc.) to the neuro-stimulator for variable stimulation using ZigBee technology. The CC2420 and atmega128L was used to implement ZigBee protocol stack. The wireless control of PCS based on ZigBee can help the tele-rehabilitation of the stroke patients. The most effective pulse shape parameters are being investigated through animal experiments. The bio-compatibility and user-friendly interface are supposed to be handled in further study.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.658-665
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• 2014

The neural stimulators have been employed to the visual prostheses system based on the functional electrical stimulation (FES). Due to the size limitation of the implantable device, the smaller area of the unit current driver pixel is highly desired for higher resolution current stimulation system. This paper presents a 16-channel compact current-mode neural stimulator IC with digital to analog converter (DAC) sharing scheme for artificial retinal prostheses. The individual pixel circuits in the stimulator IC share a single 6 bit DAC using the sample-and-hold scheme. The DAC sharing scheme enables the simultaneous stimulation on multiple active pixels with a single DAC while maintaining small size and low power. The layout size of the stimulator circuit with the DAC sharing scheme is reduced to be 51.98 %, compared to the conventional scheme. The stimulator IC is designed using standard $0.18{\mu}m$ 1P6M process. The chip size except the I/O cells is $437{\mu}m{\times}501{\mu}m$.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.221-227
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• 2015

In this study, Multi-Array Electrodes (MAE) and Programmable Multi-channel Electrical Stimulator (PMES) were implemented for firing Trigger Points (TPs) of the patient with Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS). MAE has 25 Ag/AgCl electrodes arranged in the form of array ($5{\times}5$) fabricated with flexible pad, which are applicable to be easy-attached to curved specific region of the human body. PMES consisted of 25 channels. Each channel was to generate various electric stimulus patterns (ESPs) by changing the mono-phasic or bi-phasic of ESP, On/Off duration of ESP, the interval between ESP, and amplitude of ESP. PMES hardware was composed of Host PC, Stimulation Pattern Editing Program (SPEP), and Multi-channel Electrical Stimulator (MES). Experiments were performed using MAE and PMES as the following. First experiment was performed to evaluate the function for each channel of Sub- Micro Controller Unit (SMCU) in MES. Second experiment was conducted on whether ESP applied from each channel of SMCU in PMES was focused to the electrode set to the ground, after applying ESP being output from each channel of SMCU in PMES to MAE.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.462-466
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• 2002

This paper describes a low frequency electrical nerve stimulator for muscle care. The developed system consist of 8bit low power consumed MPU, voltage boosting circuit converting 9V input to 120V output, repairing circuit for distorted output pulse, LED and buttons for I/O, and electro-chemical pad. The pulse generation algorithm for the muscle care effect is developed with basic pulses such as a single phase rectangle pulse, symmetric rectangle pulse, and depolarized interrupt pulse.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2013

We describe a neural stimulator front-end with arbitrary stimulation waveform generator and adaptive supply regulator (ASR) for visual prosthesis. Each pixel circuit generates arbitrary current waveform with 5 bit programmable amplitude. The ASR provides the internal supply voltage regulated to the minimum required voltage for stimulation. The prototype is implemented in $0.35{\mu}m$ CMOS with HV option and occupies $2.94mm^2$ including I/Os.