Patent ID: 7013178

Claim:
An implantable medical device communication system, comprising: an implantable medical device comprising a power supply, a controller, and a communication unit, wherein the communication unit combines data from the controller and power from the power supply to produce a communication signal that is selectively changeable between at least a first and a second voltage, and the communication unit produces a reference signal; a bus to receive the communication signal on a first wire and to receive the reference signal on a second wire; and a slave device comprising a recovery unit to recover power from a difference in potential between the communication signal and the reference signal transmitted across the first and second wires of said bus, and a transceiver unit to decode data from the selectively changeable communication signal transmitted across the first wire, wherein one bit time of data to be communicated across the first wire is defined as a predetermined number of clock cycles, a logic “0” is communicated by holding the first wire at the first voltage for a first fraction of the predetermined number of clock cycles and a logic “1” is communicated by holding the first wire at the first voltage for a second fraction of the predetermined number of clock cycles.