A Comparative Numerical Study on Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Self‐Powered Pacemaker Application

Abstract

The potential application of this energy harvesting has been recognized in the form of the replacement of batteries of the pacemakers. Since the Ni-Cd or Li-ion batteries used for pacemakers have finite life span [15] and hence these require replacement after a certain period. To overcome this drawback, researchers have been exploring methods where an energy harvester could scavenge energy from human body and power the pacemaker.Goto et al. [16] carried out the pioneering work in the field of powering leadless pacemakers. A kinetic watch energy generating system was employed on a dog's heart and 13 µJ of energy per heartbeat was successfully achieved. Tashiro et al. conducted an experiment where pacemaker was powered by harvesting enough energy from the motion of canine heart. [17] However, the design proposed by them is practically impossible to be placed inside the thoracic cavity of the laboratory animal. Recently, Karami and Inman [12] have proposed zig-zag structures to achieve lower frequencies with piezoceramics to power pacemaker implanted in chest. Heart beat acceleration was used in this study for actuating the harvester but the size of harvester is too large to be inserted into intravenous cavity. Zurbuchen et al. recently conducted an in vivo study on pig's heart for 30 min. [18] Their study aimed at demonstration of battery and leadless cardiac pacing by using energy harvesting mechanism derived from Swiss wristwatch. It was shown that the mechanism generated sufficient electrical power (<10 µW) to meet out the demand of a typical modern pacemaker. [19] A number of researchers have carried out research in this field where piezoelectric energy harvester has been employed to power pacemaker. An exhaustive literature review regarding piezoelectric energy harvesting for pacemaker application along with limitations has been presented in Table 1.The size of miniaturized leadless pacemaker should be such that it can be directly placed inside the heart. [25] So, the size of the pacemaker should be compatible with intravenous introduction, that is, its diameter should be around 6 mm. However, most of the designs proposed so far [20][21][22]12] have dimensions more than that of intravenous cavity hence very impractical from pacemaker design point of view. To the best of authors' knowledge, there is hardly any literature available dealing with the design and study of the energy harvesting systems

Symbiotic cardiac pacemaker

“…Among all of these routes, mechanical movement of organs is the most abundant energy source in vivo. Self-powered IMEDs harvesting biomechanical energy from cardiac motion 22–24 , respiratory movement, and blood flow is part of a paradigm shift that is on the horizon 25 . A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) 26 has been developed as a potential biomechanical energy harvester for self-powered IMEDs 27 , which shows many unique advantages, such as flexibility, desirable biocompatibility, and light weight, in implantable applications 28 .…”

Piezoelectric Configuration for Generating Electricity Using Waves Power

“…The values of voltage and electric current obtained in this study are similar to several studies on the use of piezoelectric to produce energy. In this study, the average measured voltage and current values were 17.58-29.85 V, and the average measured electric current was 1.16-2.01 mA, while several studies showed that the voltage and electric current generated by the piezoelectric were 5.08 V and 10.2 mA [24], 3.5 V and 100 mA [25], 4 V and 0.015 A [26], 2.3 mV [27], and 0.9 V [28].…”

On-Site and External Energy Harvesting in Underground Wireless

“…For example, in [105], the authors propose a prototype design for energy harvesting in roadway pavements using the vibration produced by vehicles passing from speed bumps. Kinetic energy from human, e.g., energy from heart-beats [106], is also used to generate energy.…”