Patent ID: 7395118

Claim:
A lead for applying stimulation pulses to tissue of a patient, comprising: a lead body; first and second terminals disposed on a proximal end of the lead body; a plurality of electrodes disposed on a distal end of the lead body; first and second electrical conductors disposed within the lead body, the first and second electrical conductors extending substantially from the proximal end to the distal end of the lead body, the first and second electrical conductors being electrically coupled to the first and second terminals respectively; a plurality of optical fibers; and first and second pluralities of photo-sensitive circuits, wherein each photo-sensitive circuit has a conductivity controlled by an amount of light incident on the respective photo-sensitive circuit; wherein the first plurality of photo-sensitive circuits are coupled in parallel with each other to the first conductor with each photo-sensitive circuit of the first plurality of photo-sensitive circuits electrically coupling a respective electrode of the plurality of electrodes to the first conductor; wherein the second plurality of photo-sensitive circuits are coupled in parallel with each other to the second conductor with each photo-sensitive circuit of the second plurality of photo-sensitive circuits electrically coupling a respective electrode of the plurality of electrodes to the second conductor; wherein each optical fiber is optically coupled to a respective photo-sensitive circuit of the first and second pluralities of photo-sensitive circuits to control current flow originating from one of the first and second terminals and flowing between a corresponding electrode and one of the first and second conductors through the respective photo-sensitive circuit subject to illumination by the optical fiber.