Waveform Type

The shape of the electromagnetic pulse produced by a PEMF device. Waveform type influences how energy is delivered to tissue. Knowing it helps compare devices and predict biological behavior. Square waves deliver sustained peak energy. Triangle and sawtooth waves emphasize rate-of-change effects. Classification criteria: Square has a flat top >40% of the pulse with edge fraction <30%. Triangle has flat top <15% with near-symmetric rise/fall ratio (0.6–1.7) and linear edges (R² >0.85). Sawtooth has strongly asymmetric rise/fall, either flat top <15% with linear edges and ratio <0.3 or >3.0, or extreme asymmetry with ratio <0.15 or >7.0 regardless of flat top or edge shape. This captures capacitor-discharge and impulse pulses with sharp spike and exponential recovery, where the broad peak briefly holds near max before decaying. Sine is the default for smooth curved edges not matching other criteria. Bipolar damped-sine bursts (loop coils driven by capacitor discharge producing a sine ringdown across multiple cycles) bypass these criteria entirely and are always assigned Sine. The carrier inside each burst is sinusoidal at the ring frequency by construction.