Portable Arbitrary Pulse Generator for Driving Microcoils for Micromagnetic Neurostimulation

Robert P Bloom ¹

Renata Saha ¹

Zachary Sanger ²

Walter C. Low ³

Theoden I. Netoff ²

Jian-Ping Wang ¹

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Department of Electrical and Computer engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA |

Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA |

Department of Neurosurgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA |

Publication type: Journal Article

Publication date: 2024-12-16

MDPI

Journal: Instruments

scimago Q2

SJR: 0.658

CiteScore: 2.6

Impact factor: —

ISSN: 2410390X

DOI: 10.3390/instruments8040055

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Abstract

Micromagnetic stimulation (μMS) is a promising branch of neurostimulation but without some of the drawbacks of electrical stimulation. Microcoil (μcoil)-based magnetic stimulation uses small micrometer-sized coils that generate a time-varying magnetic field, which, as per Faraday’s Laws of Electromagnetic Induction, induces an electric field on a conductive surface. This method of stimulation has the advantage of not requiring electrical contact with the tissue; however, these μcoils are not easy to operate. Large currents are required to generate the required magnetic field. These large currents are too large for standard test equipment to provide, and additional power amplifiers are needed. To aid in the testing and development of micromagnetic stimulation devices, we have created a compact single-unit test setup for driving these devices called the µCoil Driver. This unit is designed to drive small inductive loads up to ±8 V at 5 A and 10 kHz.