Implantable medical device telemetry with hop-on-error frequency hopping
AssigneeCardiac Pacemakers, Inc.
InventorsJoseph E. Bange, Earle Roberts, Kenneth F. Cowan, Mehdi Katoozi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A telemetry system for data transmission between an implantable medical device and an external system includes a plurality of channels each representing a frequency band within a predetermined frequency range. The data transmission is performed using at least one active channel at any instant. Channel hopping is performed upon detecting an interruption of communication, such that a scan is performed through an array of channels selected from the plurality of channels. If a data frame is not successfully transmitted, it is repeatedly re-transmitted using the current and/or the next active channels until its transmission becomes successful.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- an implantable cardiac rhythm management module;
- and
- a telemetry circuit including:
- a transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate information with an external device via a plurality of channels each representing a predetermined frequency band;
- a telemetry controller electrically coupled to the transceiver and including a primary timer circuit;
- a synchronous scan timer circuit;
- and a memory to store a synchronous scan list, and
- wherein the telemetry controller is configured to:
- initiate communication according to a primary channel mode using a first frequency channel as the primary communication channel, wherein the primary timer circuit is reset when a response is received from the external device;
- detect a timeout of the primary timer circuit;
- initiate a scan of a next frequency channel according to a synchronous scan mode in response to the detected timeout,
- re-initiate communication with the external device in the primary channel mode when a response to the synchronous scan is received;
- and
- initiate a scan of a subsequent frequency channel selected according to a synchronous scan list when no response to the scan is received before a timeout of the synchronous scan timer, wherein the timeout interval of the synchronous scan timer matches a synchronous scan timeout interval in the external device.
A method of operating an implantable medical device (IMD), the method comprising:
- communicating information wirelessly with an external device according to a primary channel mode using a first frequency channel as the primary communication channel;
- detecting, by the implantable device, failure to receive a response communication from the external device within a specified maximum response time value;
- scanning a next frequency channel in a synchronous scan mode in response to the failure, wherein the implantable device scans a frequency channel for a same time interval as the external device when in the synchronous scan mode;
- re-establishing wireless communication with the external device in the primary channel mode when a response to the synchronous scanning is received;
- and
- continuing the synchronous scanning of frequency channels according to a synchronous scan list when no response to the scanning is received.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.