Infrared Light-Based Battery Charging And Communications May Improve Convenience And Robustness Of Implantable Medical Devices

Focus:

This article describes experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of using infrared light (IR) to charge secondary batteries in implanted medical devices and to provide communications (telemetry) with these devices. These IR-based charging and communications techniques are proposed as alternatives to using primary (non-rechargeable) batteries in implants, and using magnetic/RF or wired methods to recharge secondary batteries and/or for telemetry. Drawbacks of the existing approaches (inconvenience, susceptibility to interference) and benefits of the proposed approach are discussed. In the first part of the experiment, light from incandescent bulbs and IR LEDs is passed through a tissue phantom (which simulates skin) to solar cells and the voltage and current produced by these cells is measured. In the second part, an IR optical data link is built using an IR LED that passes light through a tissue phantom to a photodiode. This setup is used to transmit a set of code words. Then, the experimental results are discussed in light of implant power and battery charging requirements, efficiency of available solar cell technology, data link design considerations, and other issues.

What you’ll learn:

• How to develop an infrared light based system for powering and communicating with medical implants
• How to develop an IR light based system for charging batteries

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Author & Publication:

Albert Wong, Sunnyvale, Calif., How2Power Today, Jun 15 2015

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