An Energy-Efficient, Dynamic Voltage Scaling Neural Stimulator for a Proprioceptive Prosthesis

This paper presents an 8 channel energy-efficient neural stimulator for generating charge-balanced asymmetric pulses. Power consumption is reduced by implementing a fully-integrated DC-DC converter that uses a reconfigurable switched capacitor topology to provide 4 output voltages for Dynamic Voltage Scaling (DVS). DC conversion efficiencies of up to 82% are achieved using integrated capacitances of under 1 nF and the DVS approach offers power savings of up to 50% compared to the front end of a typical current controlled neural stimulator. A novel charge balancing method is implemented which has a low level of accuracy on a single pulse and a much higher accuracy over a series of pulses. The method used is robust to process and component variation and does not require any initial or ongoing calibration. Measured results indicate that the charge imbalance is typically between 0.05%-0.15% of charge injected for a series of pulses. Ex-vivo experiments demonstrate the viability in using this circuit for neural activation. The circuit has been implemented in a commercially-available 0.18 μm HV CMOS technology and occupies a core die area of approximately 2.8 mm² for an 8 channel implementation.