Patent ID: 7647110

Claim:
A method for manufacturing an implantable medical device, comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of non-hermetically sealed modules, each containing a functional subsystem of an implantable medical device and each functional subsystem comprising at least one component; providing each module with a module encapsulation that completely covers said at least one component of the functional subsystem of that module; for at least one of said subsystems, providing that subsystem and the module thereof in multiple, different versions; providing each module with an interface portion having a configuration allowing that module to mate with a corresponding interface portion of any of the multiple versions of said at least one subsystem; selecting selected functional subsystems, from among the functional subsystems respectively in the plurality of modules, and connecting the respective modules of the selected functional subsystems via said interface portions and with a mechanical connection that permanently connects the module encapsulations with one another, to form a complete medical device from the selected modules; and hermetically sealing the connected modules with an outer enclosure enclosing all of the connected modules.