Articles | Volume 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/ars-7-197-2009
https://doi.org/10.5194/ars-7-197-2009
19 May 2009
 | 19 May 2009

An experimental study on passive charge balancing

K. Sooksood, T. Stieglitz, and M. Ortmanns

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.