IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 49, NO.

5, MAY 2013 1853

Functional Magnetic Stimulation System and Pulsed
Magnetic-Field Effect on Peripheral Nerve
Chen Liu , Jinyu Zhu , Jiangtao Li , Shuhong Wang , Jie Qiu , Qindong Shi , Jianxin Liu ,
Lisheng Zhong , and Jianguo Zhu
State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Xian Jiaotong
University, Xian 710049, China
XiJing Hospital, Department of Orthopedics, Xian Fourth Military Medical University, Xian 710049, China
College of Medicine, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049, China
School of Electrical, Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems, University of Technology, Sydney NSW2007, Australia
This paper studies a pulsed magnetic-eld generator which provides a noncontact way for functional nerve stimulation. Each compo-
nent of the device, such as charging circuit, discharging circuit, and control circuit, is described in detail. The feasibility of the device is
veried by simulation and experiments. The magnetic eld and the induced electric eld are produced by a gure-8 coil under excita-
tion of pulsed discharging current. According to the Schwarz model, the action potentials of nerve ber are simulated, and the neural
dynamic response is predicted.
Index TermsMagnetic stimulation, peripheral nerve, pulsed magnetic eld.
I. INTRODUCTION
I
N RECENT decades, the biological effects of pulsed mag-
netic eld on nerve tissue have attracted more attention.
Through experiments, some useful knowledge is summarized.
However, the intrinsic mechanisms are not fully understood.
The pulsed magnetic-eld generator is one of the crucial devices
in nerve stimulation. The current waveform produced by the
generator, the repeated frequency of the current, and coil form
of the device all affect the experimental results [1]. Thus, the de-
velopment of a magnetic stimulation system, which is suitable
for peripheral nerve function recovery, is necessary.
In this paper, referring to some studies of magnetic stimula-
tion systems [2], [3] and peripheral nerve properties, a prototype
of a pulsed magnetic-eld generator is designed and realized.
The system diagram is shown in Fig. 1. The device can gen-
erate damped sinusoidal current owing through a stimulation
coil with appropriate frequency to achieve a pulsed magnetic
eld for peripheral nerve function recovery. In order to obtain
enough induced electric eld in nerve tissue, the parameters of
stimulation coil are analyzed and designed.
Neural response to the magnetic stimulation is simulated
based on the Schwarz model, a circuit model of neural, which
is helpful to predict the threshold of induced electric eld and
the effect of magnetic stimulation.
II. PULSED MAGNETIC-FIELD GENERATOR
1) Requirement for the Pulsed Magnetic-Field Generator:
Different neural structures require different pulsed current fre-
quency to evoke action potential. The membrane time constant
and threshold membrane voltage decide this frequency [4]. The
bipolar pulsed current contains wideband frequencies and, in
different frequencies, the medium reects different dielectric
properties. In the paper, the repeat frequency of the pulsed mag-
netic eld is chosen as 100 Hz. Neural response is related to
Manuscript received November 13, 2012; revised January 04, 2013 and Jan-
uary 18, 2013; accepted January 18, 2013. Date of current version May 07, 2013.
Corresponding author: S. Wang (e-mail: shwang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TMAG.2013.2243718
Fig. 1. System diagram of the pulsed magnetic-eld generator.
Fig. 2. Charging circuit schematic.
rheobase and chronaxie strength. Davey summarized the in-
duced electric eld as a function of pulsed current frequency
[4]. In the case of 12.8 kHz, the sensory nerve threshold is about
50 V/m.
2) Brief Introduction of the System: As shown in Fig. 1,
the system consists of a charging circuit, discharging circuit,
and a control and detection circuit. The charging circuit,
shown in Fig. 2, can be regarded as an adjustable dc voltage
source. The part number of insulated-gate bipolar transistors
(IGBTs), one of the power-electronic switches in this circuit,
is SKM75GB176D. Due to the high oscillating frequency, a
fast recovery diode and a fast switching thyristor are used. The
part number of the thyristor, manufactured by TECHSEM, is
Y45KKE. Its parameters are listed in Table I.
The ATMEGA16A single-chip microcomputer is used to
control the switches. It cannot directly drive the IGBT and
thyristor, because there is not enough output power.
The structure diagram of the IGBT module drive circuit is
shown in Fig. 3. The IGBT module drive circuit is designed to
convert the control signal from ATMEGA16A into an appro-
priate turn-on and turn-off signal and protect the IGBT from
damage.
0018-9464/$31.00 2013 IEEE
1854 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 49, NO. 5, MAY 2013
TABLE I
THYRISTOR PARAMETERS
Fig. 3. Structure diagram of the IGBT driver circuit.
Fig. 4. Thyristor drive circuit.
The thyristor drive circuit is shown in Fig. 4 and all of the
part numbers of the components are labeled. The duration of the
trigger signal generated by ATMEGA16A is 50 s. This signal
is amplied by the transistor Q1 and excited by the external dc
source. A major role of the pulse transformer is to isolate the
control circuit and power transfer circuit. Diodes D2 and D4 are
used to provide a current path for the primary coil of the pulse
transformer. D3 is a freewheeling diode. The input and output
signals are shown in Fig. 5.
The resistance between the gate and cathode is 14 . The
peak value of the output signal is 2.9 V. The gate trigger current
is 207 mA, which is greater than . Thus, the thyristor would
be triggered reliably.
In the discharge circuit shown in Fig. 1, , , and represent
the capacitor, resistance, and coil inductance in the discharge
circuit. The charged voltage of the capacitor is . Then, the
discharge current can be expressed as
(1)
where , .
3) Stimulation Coils: Figure-8 coil, pictured in Fig. 6, is
mostly used for functional magnetic stimulation [5]. The direc-
tions of currents owing through the two parts in series are op-
posite so that the focal magnetic eld beyond the center of the
gure-8 coil is achieved.
The diameter for each circular part is 35 mm. The inductance
and resistance of the coil are 14.6 and 0.18 , respectively.
Fig. 5. Input signal (in blue) and output signal (in yellow) of the thyristor drive
circuit.
Fig. 6. Figure-8 stimulation coil.
Fig. 7. Prototype of the pulsed magnetic-eld generator.
Fig. 7 shows the prototype of the pulsed magnetic-eld gen-
erator. In the system, capacitance is 10 , inductance is 15 ,
and resistance is 0.2 . The voltage of the capacitor is up to 1000
V. It is exible to adjust the repeat frequency of pulsed current
by changing the control signal of the IGBT and thyristor.
III. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The discharge current simulated by using Simulink-sim-
power/MATLAB is shown in Fig. 8.
The comparison of simulation and experimental capacitor
voltage is shown in Fig. 9. It takes 10-ms charging to 1000 V.
Excited by the discharge current, the transient magnetic eld
produced by gure-8 coil is calculated by using Ansoft, a com-
mercial nite-element package. Fig. 10 shows the vector distri-
bution of magnetic ux density at the moment of pulsed current
peak value. Fig. 11 illustrates the magnitude of magnetic eld
over the center 1 cm of the gure-8 coil, where the vector is
parallel to the coil.
In Fig. 12(a), a detection coil is applied to measure the mag-
netic eld over the center 1 cm of the gure-8 coil. The in-
duced voltage waveform of the detection coil is illustrated in
Fig. 12(b). The maximum magnetic ux density is 0.14 T. The
LIU et al.: FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION SYSTEM AND PULSED MAGNETIC-FIELD EFFECT ON PERIPHERAL NERVE 1855
Fig. 8. Simulation discharge current.
Fig. 9. Capacitor voltage. (a) Simulation. (b) Experiment.
Fig. 10. Magnetic ux intensity.
Fig. 11. Magnitude of magnetic ux intensity: the calculate location at the
axis, 1 cm over the top of the coil.
Fig. 12. Measurement of induced voltage of the detection coil: (a) position of
detection coil and (b) measured induced voltage.
magnetic ux density measured by the detection coil is deduced
as 0.1448 T based on the area and turn number of the coil.
The induced current owing through the detection coil is too
little to affect the measured magnetic eld.
Fig. 13. Electric eld over 0.5 cm from the gure-8 coil.
Fig. 14. Induced currents caused by the induced electric eld.
Fig. 15. Activating function of the 8-gure coil.
The induced electric eld [6] in nerve tissue due to the pulsed
magnetic eld can be expressed as
(2)
where is the electric-eld strength, is the magnetic vector
potential, is the permeability of the nerve issue, is the dis-
tance from the eld point to coil, and is the current that ows
through the coil.
Figs. 13 and 14 show the magnitude of induced electric eld
and induced current in the nerve tissue over the center 1 cm of
gure-8 coil, respectively.
The gure-8 coil is parallel to experimental nerve samples.
In this case, the induced electric eld and the induced current
only have parallel components to the plane of gure-8 coil.
The induced current has an opposite direction with coil cur-
rent. From the calculation result, gure-8 coil is able to pro-
duce better spatial resolution of electric elds. The maximum
induced electric-eld strength, 58 V/m, is greater than the sen-
sory nerve threshold of 50 V/m. The nerve tissue will emerge
with a threshold response.
The relative position of the coil and nerve is an important
factor for magnetic stimulation. When the nerve ber is placed
parallel to the coil plane, the activating function of the nerve
ber becomes [7], for 8-gure coil, is shown
1856 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 49, NO. 5, MAY 2013
Fig. 16. Schwarz model.
TABLE II
NERVE PARAMETERS
Fig. 17. Action potential propagation.
Fig. 18. Subthreshold characteristics.
in Fig. 15. The activating function consists of positive and neg-
ative peaks. The nerve tissue may produce depolarization in one
peak and polarization in another peak.
IV. NERVE DYNAMIC RESPONSE SIMULATION
A. Nerve Fiber Model
The Schwarz model [8], [9] is used to simulate nerve re-
sponse. The model is shown in Fig. 16.
Referring to the work of Roth and Basser [10], the induced
electric eld is considered. The nerve membrane voltage can be
calculated. Some nerve parameters are listed in Table II.
The action potential propagation is determined by the induced
electric eld. Fig. 17 shows the evoked action potential. If the
Fig. 19. Repeated stimulus.
induced electric eld does not exceed the threshold value, the
nerve ber shows a subthreshold in Fig. 18.
With repeated stimulus acting on nerve ber, the action po-
tentials are evoked repeatedly. It seems like a superposition of
every single stimulus described in Fig. 19.
V. CONCLUSION
In order to study the magnetic stimulation effects on the pe-
ripheral nerve, a prototype of the pulsed magnetic-eld gen-
erator is designed and established. The comparison of simu-
lated and experimental performances of the generator proves
the feasibility of this device. The simulation of neural response
to pulsed magnetic stimulation is applied to predict an induced
electric-eld threshold.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant 51177116 and
in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Uni-
versities under Grant xjj2011088.
REFERENCES
[1] P. Ravazzani, G. Tognola, J. Ruohonen, and F. Grandori, Optimiza-
tion of the devices for magnetic stimulation of the nervous system: In-
uence of frequency-related effects and geometrical characteristics,
in Proc. IEEE 22nd Annu. Int. Conf. Eng. Med. Biol. Soc., 2000, vol.
4, pp. 26252628.
[2] S. Biller, L. Simon, P. Fiedler, D. Strohmeier, and J. Haueisen, High
frequency oscillations evoked by peripheral magnetic stimulation, in
Proc. IEEE 33rd Annu. Int. Conf. Eng. Med. Biol. Soc., Boston, MA,
USA, Aug. 30Sep. 3, 2011, pp. 11491152.
[3] K. Davey and C. M. Epstein, Magnetic stimulation coil and circuit
design, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 47, no. 11, pp. 14931499,
Nov. 2000.
[4] K. Davey and M. Riehl, Designing transcranial magnetic stimulation
system, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 11421148, Mar. 2005.
[5] P. S. Tofts, The distribution of induced currents in magnetic stim-
ulation of the nervous system, Phys. Med. Biol., vol. 35, no. 8, pp.
11191128, 1990.
[6] V. W.-H. Lin, I. N. Hsiao, and V. Dhaka, Magnetic coil design con-
siderations for functional magnetic stimulation, IEEE Trans. Biomed.
Eng., vol. 47, no. 5, pp. 600610, May 2000.
[7] P. J. Basser and B. J. Roth, Stimulation of a myelinated nerve axon
by electromagnetic induction, Med. Biol. Eng. Comput., vol. 29, no.
3, pp. 261268, 1991.
[8] J. R. Schwarz and G. Eikhof, Na currents and action potentials in rat
myelinated nerve ber at 20 and 30 C, Pgers Archiv Eur. J. Physiol.
Springer, pp. 569577, 1987.
[9] J. R. Schwarz, G. Reid, and H. Bostock, Action potentials and mem-
brane currents in the human node of Ranvier, Pgers Archiv, vol.
430, no. 2, pp. 283292, 1995.
[10] B. J. Roth and P. J. Basser, A model of the stimulation of a nerve ber
by electromagnetic induction, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 37, no.
6, pp. 588597, Jun. 1990.