Many neurological disorders are caused by the absence or failure of neural impulses, which result in the loss of control of certain body functions. In many cases, electrical stimulation can be used to restore the impaired functions. Considerable progress has been made in this area in recent years and efforts to microminiaturize the stimulator and electrodes are underway. One of the components that limits the size and performance of the injectable microstimulators under development is a hybrid charge storage capacitor. The overall goal of the proposed program is to adapt the Giner, Inc. Electrochemical Supercapacitor technology to this application and develop a charge storage capacitor with improved performance and/or reduced size. Electrochemical supercapacitors store energy by utilizing double layer and surface redox processes. Giner, Inc. Supercapacitor technology is based on high-area RuOx as active material and a polymeric perfluorosulfonate ionomer as the electrolyte and membrane separator. In the Phase I of the proposed program, methods will be developed to construct single units and ten-cell stacks of the miniaturized capacitor. The electrical characteristics of this capacitor will be tested and compared with NINCDS specifications to establish feasibility of this approach.
