A Programmable Ramp Waveform Generator for PEMF Exposure Studies on Chondrocytes

Osteoarthritis is a debilitating joint disease where the surface of articular cartilage degrades and is unable to repair itself through natural processes. Controlling the migration of transplanted chondrocytes to the defective cartilage non-invasively could be a novel treatment for osteoarthritis. Our research group has performed an in-vitro investigation into the response of cultured human chondrocytes to pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF). Development of a treatment for osteoarthritis patients will require the use of a programmable waveform generator to generate the PEMF. This paper discusses the design and testing of a programmable ramp waveform generator for such purpose. When this ramp waveform generator is connected to the PEMF coil driver circuitry, it will be able to produce linearly ramping magnetic fields ranging in strength from 0.5 mT to 4.5 mT. It also has an attainable pulse width ranging from 6 ms to 100 ms, with a selectable duty cycle from 1% to 99%