Patent ID: 8165677

Claim:
An implantable medical device adapted to be communicatively coupled to a second medical device, the implantable medical device comprising: a cardiac rhythm management (CRM) device; an acoustic transducer configured to be an acoustic coupler for acoustic communication between the implantable medical device and the second medical device; an acoustic communication circuit coupled to the CRM device and the acoustic transducer and including: a data receiver circuit adapted to receive and demodulate an incoming acoustic signal and including an error detector, the incoming acoustic signal including a first carrier signal modulated by incoming data, the error detector adapted to detect an error rate of the demodulated incoming acoustic signal; a data transmitter circuit adapted to modulate and transmit an outgoing acoustic signal and including a variable-frequency waveform generator, the outgoing acoustic signal including a second carrier signal modulated by outgoing data, the variable-frequency waveform generator adapted to generate the second carrier signal with a programmable carrier frequency; and a frequency selection circuit adapted to adjust the carrier frequency using the error rate; and an implantable housing configured to contain the CRM device and the acoustic communication circuit, wherein the acoustic transducer is fastened to the implantable housing.