Design and implementation of biomedical electrical stimulation devices

Abstract

Electrical stimulation has been used for cell manipulation. Externally applied electric fields at different levels can induce different cell reactions. Low-Voltage Electrical Stimulation can promote cell growth and neuronal regeneration, while higher voltage stimulation is often used to kill cancer/tumor cells by altering the subcellular organelle structure. Although much work has been done on the development of the theory behind such stimulation, experiments to determine the optimum stimulation profiles for various cell types have been costly, bulky and inefficient. To accelerate and facilitate experiments for such purposes, two separate stimulation devices (covering both High- and Low-Voltage ES) were developed, fabricated and tested in this work. The developed devices allow users to set input data and acquire real-time system information as standalone devices. Their portability, user-friendliness and low production cost further enhance the investigations of the applications of electrical stimulation.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology