Patent ID: 8406891

Claim:
A communication circuit for an implantable medical device (IMD) comprising: a radio frequency (RF) modulator configured to modulate an outgoing IMD data signal and to demodulate an incoming IMD data signal; a first serial buffer register, communicatively coupled to the RF modulator, configured to store received demodulated data and to store transmit data for modulation, wherein the first serial buffer register operates according to a first clock signal; a second serial buffer register, communicatively coupled to the RF modulator, configured to store received demodulated data and to store transmit data for modulation, wherein the second serial buffer register operates according to the first clock signal; a parallel buffer register, communicatively coupled to the first and second serial buffer registers, configured to receive data in parallel from the first and second serial buffer registers, wherein the parallel buffer register operates according to a second clock signal that has a slower frequency than the first clock signal; and a telemetry control circuit, communicatively coupled to the first serial buffer register, the second serial buffer register, and the parallel buffer, wherein the telemetry control circuit is configured to, when in receive mode, alternate between serially receiving data into the first serial buffer register while the parallel buffer receives data from the second serial buffer register, and serially receiving data into the second serial buffer register while the parallel buffer receives data from the first serial buffer.