Surgical instrument power system with integrated supercapacitor powered by low voltage battery

1 . A surgical instrument comprising:

a compartment configured to receive one or more battery cells having a first voltage rating;

a boost circuit configured to receive a voltage input at the first voltage rating and provide a voltage output at a second voltage rating greater than the first voltage rating;

a supercapacitor configured to be charged, via the boost circuit, to approximately the second voltage rating; and

a motor configured to be powered by the supercapacitor to provide a surgical treatment,

wherein the boost circuit comprises a first delay circuit configured to delay charging of the supercapacitor for a first delay time period.

2 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , further comprising:

a firing assembly configured to couple to the motor such that the motor is configured to translate the firing assembly in a distal direction to deploy staples from an end effector of the surgical instrument to provide the surgical treatment.

3 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the second voltage rating is between approximately 3 and approximately 5 times the first voltage rating.

4 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the boost circuit comprises a boost converter configured to convert the voltage input at the first voltage rating to the voltage output at the second voltage rating and a current limiter configured to limit current output of the boost converter to a threshold value.

5 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the boost circuit is configured to charge the supercapacitor in a constant current mode with a constant current output to approximately the second voltage rating.

6 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 ,

wherein the boost circuit comprises a boost converter configured to convert the voltage input at the first voltage rating to the voltage output at the second voltage rating such that the voltage output achieves the second voltage rating within a soft-start time period, and

wherein the first delay time period is greater than the soft-start time period and less than about 1 second.

7 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the boost circuit is configured to charge the supercapacitor to approximately the second voltage rating between approximately 10 seconds and 120 seconds following electrical connection of the one or more battery cells to the voltage input.

8 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the supercapacitor has a capacitance of between approximately 1 F and approximately 3 F and a voltage rating of between approximately 12 V and approximately 15 V.

9 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the motor is configured to consume between approximately 30 J and approximately 100 J during the surgical treatment.

10 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the supercapacitor is configured to retain a voltage of at least 50% of the second voltage rating upon completion of the surgical treatment.

11 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the boost circuit is configured to charge the supercapacitor to approximately the second voltage rating within approximately 1 second and approximately 60 seconds following completion of the surgical treatment.

12 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , comprising:

a main body comprising a handle, a shaft extending distally from the handle, and an end effector coupled to a distal end of the shaft, wherein the motor is configured to actuate the end effector to deploy staples from the end effector to provide the surgical treatment; and

a power module comprising the boost circuit and the supercapacitor such that the power module is configured to mechanically and electrically couple and decouple from the main body, and wherein the power module is configured to withstand temperatures of at least 270° C. and pressures greater than 15 psi.

13 . The surgical instrument of claim 12 , wherein the power module comprises a delayed power output contact configured to provide a delayed power connection to the main body.

14 . The surgical instrument of claim 13 , wherein the delayed power output contact is configured to provide delayed connection to a negative terminal of the one or more battery cells during a charging time period in which the supercapacitor is charged to approximately the second voltage rating following insertion of the one or more battery cells into the compartment.

15 . The surgical instrument of claim 12 , wherein the power module comprises a pair of boost voltage output contacts configured to provide electrical contact to positive and negative terminals of the supercapacitor to the main body.

16 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein the one or more battery cells consists of exactly one battery cell or exactly two battery cells.

17 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , comprising:

a plurality of supercapacitors each configured to be charged, via the boost circuit, to approximately the second voltage rating,

wherein the boost circuit comprises a charge control circuit configured to sequentially charge the plurality of supercapacitors and couple at least a portion of the plurality of supercapacitors in parallel.

18 . The surgical instrument of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more battery cells are single use battery cells.