Two journal papers on the power efficiency of electrical neurostimulation

We’re happy to share two new papers coming out of the PhD work of Francesc (Cesc) Varkevisser (co-supervised by Prof. Wouter Serdijn), both tackling the same bottleneck from two complementary angles: how to make large-scale multichannel electrical stimulation far more power-efficient (and thus scalable).  

In Journal of Neural Engineering (2026), Cesc quantifies where the power actually goes in multichannel stimulators and provides a practical framework to compare supply-scaling strategies across applications and channel counts—making the case (with data) for when stepped or adaptive approaches matter most. 

In IEEE TCAS-I, the team then translates that motivation into a circuit solution: an architecture that enables autonomous, per-channel output supply scaling (without explicit compliance monitoring), demonstrating >80% output-driver efficiency over a wide range of currents/impedances and fast adaptation suited for multiplexing across electrodes with dynamic loads. 

Big congratulations to Cesc and all co-authors! I also want to explicitly acknowledge the co-supervision by Prof. Wouter Serdijn, and the fruitful collaboration with Prof. Georgios Spyropoulos’ team at Ghent University.