An experimental study on passive charge balancing

Abstract

This paper presents a simplified analysis of the electrode potential upon mismatched, biphasic stimulation using passive discharge techniques, e.g. by shortening of the electrodes. It turns out that especially for microelectrodes the required shorting intervals become as large as to limit a feasible stimulation interval. If no blocking capacitors can be used due to limited space and the degree of miniaturisation, the passive discharge even imposes severe risks to the surrounding tissue and the electrode.