St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings Smi S.a.r.l.

Spinal Modulation, Inc.

Steven T Brandon

April C Pixley

Cary W R Campbell

Cary Wr Campbell

Specific embodiments of the present invention are for use by a base station (BS) that enables power efficient wireless radio frequency (RF) communication between the BS and a medical device (MD), which may or may not be an implantable medical device (IMD). In an embodiment, once a communication session is established between the BS and the MD, the BS selectively turns a drop link mode on and off. The drop link mode is a communication mode that while turned on (i.e., enabled) reduces and preferably minimizes the length of time that an RF link is maintained between the BS and the MD. In accordance with an embodiment, at any given time during a communication session the drop link mode is either turned on (i.e., enabled) or turned off (i.e., disabled).

Power efficient wireless RF communication between a base station and a medical device

Certain embodiments described herein enable a base station (BS) and a medical device (MD) to establish a radio frequency (RF) link using any one of a plurality of different RF channels. The MD sniffs the RF channels over which a BS may send a link request, and tunes to the RF channel identified, as a result of the sniffing, as the channel over which a BS may be transmitting a link request. The MD may also demodulate a signal received over the RF channel to which the MD is tuned, and determine, based on a portion of the demodulated signal including a channel identifier, a specific one of the RF channels over which a BS is actually transmitting. This enables the MD to change the channel to which it is tuned if it determines that it is not tuned to the RF channel over which a BS is actually transmitting.

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Ben Lomond, CA, United States of America

Steven T Brandon