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Non-Invasive Picosecond Pulse System For Electrostimulation, Ross Aaron Petrella

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Picosecond pulsed electric fields have been shown to have stimulatory effects, such as calcium influx, activation of action potential, and membrane depolarization, on biological cells. Because the pulse duration is so short, it has been hypothesized that the pulses permeate a cell and can directly affect intracellular cell structures by bypassing the shielding of the membrane. This provides an opportunity for studying new biophysics. Furthermore, radiating picosecond pulses can be efficiently done by a compact antenna because the antenna size is comparable to the pulse width. However, all of the previous bioelectric studies regarding picosecond pulses have been conducted in …