Patent Application
20070203529
The present invention relates to implantable medical devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to feedthrough assemblies having filtering capabilities.
Electrical feedthroughs provide a conductive path extending between the interior of a hermetically sealed container and a point outside the container. However, such feedthroughs also can provide a path for undesired electromagnetic interference (EMI) to enter the container. With implantable medical devices, this can lead to the undesired introduction of EMI to circuitry inside the device container.
Filtering can be provided using capacitors that are electrically connected to the conductive path or paths of the feedthrough. However, known designs using discoidal capacitor filters are expensive, and monolithic discoidal capacitors do not allow replacement of defective subcomponents during device fabrication. Moreover, many filtering assemblies are bulky and take up valuable space inside an implantable medical device container. Prior filtering assemblies do not readily provide a low-cost and small-sized filter assembly without compromising filtering performance.
The present invention provides an EMI-filtered feedthrough assembly for an implantable medical device. The assembly includes balanced line capacitors electrically connected between adjacent feedthrough conductors to provide low-pass filtering. Inductor coils are optionally connected to the capacitors to provide enhanced low-pass filtering.
The present invention provides a filtered feedthrough assembly for an implantable medical device.
Five capacitors 110A-110E are each located between adjacent pairs of openings 106A-106F in the PCB substrate 102. Each capacitor is a balanced line capacitor (e.g., a balanced line capacitor available from X2Y Attenuators, LLC, Erie, Pa.), which provides increased attenuation with decreased inductance as compared to standard surface mount capacitors. As shown with respect to capacitor 110E (reference numbers for the subcomponents of capacitors 110A-110D have been omitted for clarity), each capacitor has a first connection node 112E, a second connection node 114E, a first grounding node 116E and a second grounding node 118E. The first and second grounding nodes 116E and 118E are each electrically connected to the trace 104E.
The PCB substrate 102 is secured within the ferrule 202, for example, using adhesive. Typically the PCB substrate 102 has a shape that corresponds to the shape of the ferrule 202, to facilitate positioning the PCB 102 within the ferrule 202. The feedthrough conductors 204A-204F extend through the openings 106A-106F, respectively, in the PCB substrate 102.
The capacitors 110A-110E are each located between adjacent pairs of feedthrough conductors 204A-204F and mounted to the PCB substrate 102 in a conventional manner. The first connection node 112A of capacitor 110A is electrically connected to the first feedthrough conductor 204A, and the second conductor node 114A of the first capacitor is electrically connected to the second feedthrough conductor 204B. The first and second connection nodes 112B and 114B are electrically connected to the second and third feedthrough conductors 110B and 110C, respectively. The traces 104A-104E are electrically connected to the ferrule 202, which is electrically conductive and electrically grounded.
Electrical connections between components of the assembly 200 can be made using a conductive adhesive, solder, or other known techniques.
In operation, the filtered feedthrough assembly 200 provides a conductive path that can extend between an exterior side of a container and an interior side of the container. When used with an implantable medical device, electromagnetic sources in the environment may pass interference along the feedthrough. The filter assembly 100 reduces the transmission of undesired electromagnetic interference (EMI), to reduce the transmission of undesired noise while permitting desired signals to still be transmitted. The capacitors 110A-110E provide low-pass filtering. Each capacitor connected between adjacent feedthrough conductors provides simultaneous conductor-to-conductor filtering and conductor-to-ground filtering. The use of a balanced line capacitor permits this simultaneous filtering to occur without the need for separate components, thereby reducing the space occupied by the filter assembly 100.
The size of each of the capacitors can vary depending on the particular application and the particular filtering desired (such as the desired cutoff frequencies). Each capacitor 110 can be of the same size. For example, each capacitor 110 can have a value of about 500 picofarads (pF) to about 10 nanofarads (nF). It is possible to provide filtering specific to each feedthrough conductor of a multipolar assembly. This can be achieved by electrically connecting only a single capacitor to particular feedthrough conductors, such as with feedthrough conductors 204A and 204F in
The assembly 200 provides relatively low equivalent series inductance (ESL) and equivalent series resistance (ESR) at frequencies typically involved with the design and operation of implantable medical devices.
The filter assembly 100 can be pre-fabricated and then be joined to a ferrule subassembly to form the filtered feedthrough assembly 200. This facilitates fabrication by allowing manufacture of the filter assembly 100 using conventional pick-and-place equipment to mount small components like capacitors. This avoids difficulties in mounting small capacitors directly to the filtered feedthrough assembly 200.
The addition of the inductor coil 302 forms an L-type filter that provides improved low frequency response of the assembly 300. More particularly, the assembly 300 has an improved attenuation slope rate as compared to the assembly 200 described above, which does not include such inductors. Thus, the use of the inductor coils 302 significantly increases the low pass filter attenuation performance of the assembly 300.
The assembly of the present invention is relatively low-cost to manufacture and occupies a relatively small space within a device, yet provides robust filtering of EMI while permitting the transmission of desired signals across the feedthrough.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For instance, the filter assemblies of the present invention can be used with a variety of feedthrough designs, including both unipolar and multipolar feedthroughs. The particular arrangement of assemblies according to the present invention will vary according to factors such as the arrangement of the feedthrough conductors.
