Towards Batteryless Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices—The Swiss Way

Abstract

Abstract-Energy harvesting devices are widely discussed as an alternative power source for todays active implantable medical devices. Repeated battery replacement procedures can be avoided by extending the implants life span, which is the goal of energy harvesting concepts. This reduces the risk of complications for the patient and may even reduce device size. The continuous and powerful contractions of a human heart ideally qualify as a battery substitute. In particular, devices in close proximity to the heart such as pacemakers, defibrillators or bio signal (ECG) recorders would benefit from this alternative energy source. The clockwork of an automatic wristwatch was used to transform the hearts kinetic energy into electrical energy. In order to qualify as a continuous energy supply for the consuming device, the mechanism needs to demonstrate its harvesting capability under various conditions. Several in-vivo recorded heart motions were used as input of a mathematical model to optimize the clockworks original conversion efficiency with respect to myocardial contractions. The resulting design was implemented and tested during in-vitro and in-vivo experiments, which demonstrated the superior sensitivity of the new design for all tested heart motions.

Implantable Energy‐Harvesting Devices

“…In 2017, Zurbuchen et al fabricated three more MIOGs by removing unnecessary parts to reduce the weight and size. They implanted the MIOGs on different epicardial sites of pigs.…”

“…Triboelectric in vivo energy harvesters (IVEHs) have already been used to collect biomechanical energy from the heartbeat and respiration of rats and pigs . Other approaches for harvesting in vivo biomechanical energy include the use of an automatic‐wristwatch IVEH to utilize the heartbeats of large mammals, or using optical energy via solar cells, which have already been implanted into rats, rabbits, and pigs …”

A Contemporary Survey on Energy Harvesting Techniques for Next Generation Implantable Bio-Medical Devices

“…16. DC-DC converter with rectifier [52] In the power conditioning circuit of the energy harvesting [55,56,57] system, start-up is another very important issue. For the power converter circuit to work, we need to power up the control circuit first.…”

Modeling and Experimental Characterization of an Electromagnetic Energy Harvester for Wearable and Biomedical Applications

“…E LECTROMAGNETIC energy harvesters (EMEH), capable of generating electrical power from mechanical movement, are actively researched since a few decades to supply low-power electronics such as wireless monitoring devices and sensors for various applications [1]- [5]. They are also intensively investigated in the field of biomedical applications to power various wearable electronics by using human-motion EH [6]- [8] as well as for bio-implantable systems for the harvesting capability of the human heart and diaphragm [9], [10]. The minimum required power to monitor physiological parameters and transmit data wire-lessly at low rate is in the range of 500µW [11] [12].…”