Anti pain stimulator using FPGA circuit

• Published in: 2008 2nd International Conference on Signals, Circuits and Systems pp. 1 - 5
• Main Authors: Benzaba, W., Allam, A., Bendaouia, L., Boutaleb, R., Ykhlef, F., Boucetta, Y.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-11-2008
• Subjects: Circuits and systems; Consumer electronics; Control systems; Costs; Electronic components; Field programmable gate arrays; Hospitals; Pain; Shape; Technological innovation
• ISBN: 9781424426270; 1424426278
• DOI: 10.1109/ICSCS.2008.4746867

The Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator (T.E.N.S.) is a medical device which is used to decrease or to block the intensity of the pain. Its working consists in helping the patient to produce a higher rate of substance secreted by the brain to block the pain. The stimulator is very much used by the hospitals specialized services in physiotherapy. The scientific and technological objectives of this project are the innovation and the control at low cost in the design and the realization of the TENS. The innovation consists in using FPGA digital programmable components instead of the traditional electronic components. Prototypes on electronic boards with FPGA components and analogical devices will be realized in order to validate the methods of stimulations used. The choice of FPGA circuits compared to ASICS ones is explained by the reduced number of devices using these kinds of circuits in the world. The achieved model should be portable with low consumption and small dimension. The advantage of the FPGA circuits used in this project consists in changing the impulse parameters provided to the patient without changing the electronics of the device. There will be only the program stored in the memory of the system to modify. This stimulator will thus have the advantage of being evolutionary and adapted to the medical discoveries related to the anti-pain remedies by electric stimulation.