An electrical stimulation system for research and testing

Abstract

Electrical stimulation is used in several research areas: In medicine, tissue and fluid samples are stimulated for cancer detection; in prosthetics, new devices are tested before commercial use; in genetics, for DNA manipulation; in food and water, for pathogen detection; in immunology for altered cells detection, and so on. In these research areas there is a need for a flexible and easy to use stimulation system that automates the testing and experimentation process. An autonomous, flexible, configurable, programmable and portable prototype has been developed to provide multiple stimulation signals and patterns for specific time periods and configurable tests. This work shows a programmable, configurable electric stimulator for providing outputs of up to 200Vpp in a frequency range of 1Hz to 40 kHz, in 4 different waveforms: sine, triangle, saw-tooth and square. The output voltage can be a single, dual, or superimposed signal of any combination of the 4 available waveforms, in a continuous or segmented pattern, with or without a frequency sweep. © 2012 IEEE.