US 12,290,677 B2
Safety critical electronic device lock
Helmut Christian Eder, Macquarie University (AU); and Michael Trieu, Macquarie University (AU)
Assigned to Cochlear Limited, Macquarie University (AU)
Appl. No. 17/261,234
Filed by Cochlear Limited, Macquarie University (AU)
PCT Filed Sep. 6, 2019, PCT No. PCT/IB2019/057535
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 19, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/053725, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 19, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/730,166, filed on Sep. 12, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0268265 A1, Sep. 2, 2021
Int. Cl. A61N 1/08 (2006.01); A61N 1/02 (2006.01); A61N 1/36 (2006.01); G06F 11/07 (2006.01); G16H 40/40 (2018.01)
CPC A61N 1/025 (2013.01) [A61N 1/08 (2013.01); A61N 1/36038 (2017.08); A61N 1/36142 (2013.01); G06F 11/0736 (2013.01); G06F 11/0751 (2013.01); G16H 40/40 (2018.01); G06F 2201/81 (2013.01)] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method, comprising:
determining, with an implantable component of a medical device, that the implantable component has experienced a safety critical fault, wherein the implantable component includes read-only memory (ROM) and non-volatile memory (NVM);
in response to determining that the medical device has experienced the safety critical fault, purposely corrupting, by the implantable component, a memory block of the non-volatile memory (NVM); and
automatically forcing the implantable component into a locked mode,
wherein the locked mode prevents execution of a run-time program stored in the implantable component.