Definition
Electrical currents for neural stimulation have conventionally been delivered via metal wires to the electrode that is in contact with the tissue. The wire connections attached to these rigid electrodes, floating in a very soft medium like neural tissue, not only damage the surrounding cells from tethering forces but also limit the longevity of the implant due to wire breakage in chronic implants. Wireless transfer of stimulus energy as well as the pulse parameters to a floating electrode or an array of electrodes has gained interest in recent years as a method to eliminate the associated problems with tethering wires. Considering the properties of the neural tissue, different types of energy transfer mechanisms have been proposed for energizing the implant wirelessly: electromagnetic radio-frequency (RF), optical, and acoustic waves. The implanted electrode(s) may or may not have active electronics for storing the...
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Freedman, D.S., Sahin, M., Towe, B.C. (2015). Wireless Microstimulators. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6675-8_605
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6675-8_605
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