Patent ID: 6942660

Claim:
An electrosurgical generator which creates and delivers a radio frequency electrosurgical output waveform, the electrosurgical generator having a controller which executes instructional code of a plurality of interactive routines to cooperatively create drive pulses in response to a selected one of a plurality of selectable modes of operation and a selected one of a plurality of selectable output power levels within the selected mode of operation and an actual power output level of the output waveform, the controller applying the drive pulses to an output circuit which converts energy represented by the drive pulses into the output waveform, the drive pulses applied to the output circuit establishing mode characteristics and the actual power output level of the output waveform, the output waveform having an analog output voltage and an analog output current, and wherein the routines and operations executed by the controller comprise: a sampling routine which obtains a plurality of time-spaced sample values corresponding to the analog output voltage and the analog output current of the output waveform at the time when each sample value is obtained, the sampling routine obtaining the plurality of sample values during each of a plurality of sequential sampling intervals; a pulse control routine which establishes a pulse-defining value for the drive pulses during each sampling interval, the pulse control routine establishing the pulse-defining value during each sampling interval by use of the selected output power level and the sample values obtained over a preceding sampling interval which preceded a present sampling interval in which the sampling routine presently obtains the sample values; a pattern generation routine which generates a mode cycle pattern for a plurality of drive pulses, the pattern generation routine generating the mode cycle pattern during the present sampling interval in accordance with the selected mode of operation and the pulse-defining value established by the pulse control routine during the present sampling interval; and a pattern delivery routine which creates the drive pulses by sequentially delivering to the output circuit multiple ones of the generated mode cycle pattern with the drive pulses of the delivered mode cycle patterns having the established pulse-defining value.