Toroidal compressible element including a switchback pattern

#A connector, for example a medical device connector, can benefit from features that can form, and reform, robust connections, including physical and electrical connections. For implantable medical devices, including, but not limited to, pacemakers, defibrillators, or neurostimulators, it can be important to provide a physical and electrical connection to a lead carrying an electrode. Examples of electrodes include an electrical stimulation electrode and a sensing electrode.

#The drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. The drawings illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document.

#FIG. 1A shows a front view of an implantable medical device, according to an example.

#FIG. 1B shows a front view of the lead of FIG. 1A, showing multiple electrical contacts.

#FIG. 1A shows a front view of an example of an implantable medical device 110. The implantable medical device 110 can be sized or shaped or otherwise configured to be implanted inside a subject, to electrostimulate or otherwise provide electrical energy to the subject's heart or elsewhere. The implantable medical device 110 can include an electronics unit 115. The electronics unit 115 can include one or more of the following: a power source 120, electronic circuitry 130, and a header 140. The electronics unit 115 can define one or more recesses inside a spring retainer 150, the one or more recesses sized to receive a spring, as discussed herein. The illustration shows one spring retainer 150, and two optional spring housings, drawn in broken line.

#FIG. 1B shows a front view of a lead 160 with two electrical contacts 161. The electronics unit 115 of the implantable medical device 110 can be coupled to the lead 160, through a header 140, in an example. FIG. 1C shows a front view of a lead 160 with multiple electrical contacts 161 coupled to and paired with contacts disposed in the header 140 of an implantable medical device 110. The header 140 can be hermetically sealed to a housing that retains electronic circuitry 130.

#The lead 160 can be sized or shaped or otherwise configured to extend through a subject, for example intravascularly. When implanted, the lead can extend from a proximal end at the header 140 of the implantable medical device 110 to a distal end, located at a target region. Examples of target regions include, but are not limited to, a subject's heart, nerves or nerve bundles, and the like. The lead 160 can provide one or more electrodes at a target region. One or more electrodes can be used to sense an electrical signal or other physiological parameter from the target region or to deliver electrical energy from the implantable medical device 110.