Amplitude-Engraving Modulation (AEM) scheme for simultaneous power and high-rate data telemetry to biomedical implants

Abstract

This paper proposes pulse-polarity encoding (PPE) followed by a new modulation technique, called Amplitude-Engraving Modulation (AEM), for short-range data and power telemetry to biomedical implants. The proposed approach is used to simultaneously transfer both power and high-rate data through a 3-contact capacitive link. Key advantage of the proposed modulation scheme lies in the fact that the rate of the data being telemetered is independent from the power carrier frequency, which makes it a proper candidate for high-density micro-stimulation biomedical implants. Simple circuit implementation of the power, data, and clock retrieval circuitry on the implant side is another major advantage for the proposed approach, which leads to extremely low power consumption on the implant. A proof-of-concept prototype setup was developed to verify the idea presented in this paper and carry out preliminary experimental results.