Hidden params when using $state not working - AngularJS, Ionic

I'm a beginner using the ionic framework.

I'm trying to use stateParams with a state but I don't want it to be exposed in the URL.

I could use stateParams when it's added to the URL (url/:param1) but when I tried to declare it under 'params' as mentioned here [ How to send and retrieve parameters using $state.go toParams and $stateParams? ] and here [ AngularJS: Pass an object into a state using ui-router ], I get the following error:

Uncaught Error: [$injector:modulerr] Failed to instantiate module surveyApp due to: TypeError: undefined is not a function at getArrayMode (http//localhost:8100/lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js:38251:39) at new Param (http//localhost:8100/lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js:38224:21) at http//localhost:8100/lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js:38857:39 at forEach (http//localhost:8100/lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js:8147:20) at Object.stateBuilder.ownParams (http//localhost:8100/lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js:38856:7) at registerState (http//localhost:8100/lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js:38975:72) at $StateProvider.state (http//localhost:8100/lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js:39460:5) at $StateProvider.IonicModule.factory.config.$stateProvider.state (http//localhost:8100/lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js:45621:31) at http//localhost:8100/js/app.js:88:3 at Object.invoke (http//localhost:8100/lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js:11994:17) http//errors.angularjs.org/1.3.6/$injector/modulerr?p0=surveyApp&p1=TypeEr…3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A8100%2Flib%2Fionic%2Fjs%2Fionic.bundle.js%3A11994%3A17)

here's a snippet of my code:

.state('tab.mytab', {
    url: '/mytab/:name',
    params: ['item'],
    views: {
        'tab-mytab': {
            templateUrl: 'templates/mytab/item.html',
            controller: 'MyTabCtrl'
        }
    }
})

any suggestions?