Bipolar Pulse

Waveform

A pulse that reverses field direction partway through its cycle, so it induces current twice, on the swing out and on the swing back. A pulse that stays in one direction is monophasic (unipolar); one that reverses is biphasic (bipolar). The two swings are the two phases of one pulse, not two pulses, which is what makes the pulse count ambiguous unless it is stated; see Pulses Per Second (pps), and see Phase.

Also known as: Monophasic / Biphasic

A bipolar pulse leaves the baseline, comes back, and then goes the other way half a cycle later. Both swings induce current, because what the body responds to is the rate the field changes, and the field changes on the way out and again on the way back. The two swings together are one pulse and one cycle, which is why counting swings gives twice the number that counting pulses does. In a measured example the swings sat 50 milliseconds apart inside a 100 millisecond cycle: 10 complete pulses each second, and 20 swings in the same second. See Pulses Per Second (pps).

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Bipolar Pulse

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Bipolar Pulse

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