Powering the future: Exploring self-charging cardiac implantable electronic devices and the Qi revolution.

The incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have risen over the last few decades worldwide, resulting in a cost burden to healthcare systems and increasingly complex procedures. Among many strategies for treating heart diseases, treating arrhythmias using cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) has been shown to improve quality of life and reduce the incidence of sudden cardiac death. The battery-powered CIEDs have the inherent challenge of regular battery replacements depending upon energy usage for their programmed tasks. Nanogenerator-based  energy harvesters have been extensively studied, developed, and optimized continuously in recent years to overcome this challenge owing to their merits of self-powering abilities and good biocompatibility. Although these nanogenerators and others currently used in energy harvesters, such as biofuel cells (BFCs) exhibit an infinite spectrum of uses for this novel technology, their demerits should not be dismissed. Despite the emergence of Qi wireless power transfer (WPT) has revolutionized the technological world, its application in CIEDs has yet to be studied well. This review outlines the working principles and applications of currently employed energy harvesters to provide a preliminary exploration of CIEDs based on Qi WPT, which may be a promising technology for the next generation of functionalized CIEDs.

Transcutaneous Pulsed RF Energy Transfer Mitigates Tissue Heating in High Power Demand Implanted Device Applications: In Vivo and In Silico Models Results.

This article presents the development of a power loss emulation (PLE) system device to study and find ways of mitigating skin tissue heating effects in transcutaneous energy transmission systems (TETS) for existing and next generation left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). Skin thermal profile measurements were made using the PLE system prototype and also separately with a TETS in a porcine model. Subsequent data analysis and separate computer modelling studies permit understanding of the contribution of tissue blood perfusion towards cooling of the subcutaneous tissue around the electromagnetic coupling area. A 2-channel PLE system prototype and a 2-channel TETS prototype were implemented for this study. The heating effects resulting from power transmission inefficiency were investigated under varying conditions of power delivery levels for an implanted device. In the part of the study using the PLE setup, the implanted heating element was placed subcutaneously 6-8 mm below the body surface of in vivo porcine model skin. Two operating modes of transmission coupling power losses were emulated: (a) conventional continuous transmission, and (b) using our proposed pulsed transmission waveform protocols. Experimental skin tissue thermal profiles were studied for various levels of LVAD power. The heating coefficient was estimated from the porcine model measurements (an in vivo living model and a euthanised cadaver model without blood circulation at the end of the experiment). An in silico model to support data interpretation provided reliable experimental and numerical methods for effective wireless transdermal LVAD energization advanced solutions. In the separate second part of the study conducted with a separate set of pigs, a two-channel inductively coupled RF driving system implemented wireless power transfer (WPT) to a resistive LVAD model (50 Ω) to explore continuous versus pulsed RF transmission modes. The RF-transmission pulse duration ranged from 30 ms to 480 ms, and the idle time (no-transmission) from 5 s to 120 s. The results revealed that blood perfusion plays an important cooling role in reducing thermal tissue damage from TETS applications. In addition, the results analysis of the in vivo, cadaver (R1Sp2) model, and in silico studies confirmed that the tissue heating effect was significantly lower in the living model versus the cadaver model due to the presence of blood perfusion cooling effects.

Fractional-order time-sharing-control-based wireless power supply for multiple appliances in intelligent building.

The wired power transmission is usually adopted to supply power for the devices in the traditional buildings. With the development of intelligent buildings, the way of wired power supply would greatly increase the complexity and consumption of laying the lines. To improve the flexibility of power supply and reduce the cost of wiring, wireless power transfer technology has been used in smart buildings. However, it remains a fundamental challenge to create a simple wireless power transfer system in which power can be wirelessly transferred to multiple appliances. Therefore, this paper proposes a wireless power transfer scheme based on fractional-order time-sharing control for a variety of household appliances in intelligent building. In the proposed scheme, only one fractional-order capacitor in the transmitter is needed to realize the time-sharing resonant charging. In contrast, the traditional multiple-receiver systems require complicated control scheme, for example, controlling a plurality of sets of series-parallel capacitors through a series of relay switches. To demonstrate the method, a 150 W LED TV with 300 kHz and a 5 W mobile phone charger with 127 kHz serve as the actual loads. The experimental results show that the proposed system can supply power to the TV and the mobile phone by a time-sharing way wirelessly.

A wireless capsule robot with spiral legs for human intestine.

BACKGROUND: As an attractive alternative to traditional diagnostic techniques, wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) can be considered a disruptive technology. METHODS: This paper presents a wirelessly powered micro-robot based on the Archimedes spiral with high integration of an active locomotion module. RESULTS: A WCE prototype was fabricated and tested. Including the video camera and end cap, the outer dimensions of the capsule were diameter (Φ) 16 mm, length 45 mm. Experiments demonstrated that the anchoring force can overcome 2.6 N wrap force on each leg. The anchoring force was improved to 1.486 with textured legs. A series of ex vivo experiments evaluated capsule performance and ability to traverse the intestine at an average speed of 2.3 cm/min. The wireless power transmission utilized a cylinder ferrite-core in the receiving coil-set, which significantly improved the coupling efficiency (to 12%) in the direction close (and parallel) to the transmitting coil. CONCLUSIONS: Although improvements of the wireless power transmission should target increased stability, this WCE device is both safe and practical for endoscopy.