Since their introduction into medical science, the only way to power implants inserted in the human body was by battery. However, that meant that the power could run out, and further surgeries are needed to replace the power packs. This just put further stress onto the patient, and sometimes rendered the treatment less successful.
But things may be different in the not too distant future. Electrical Engineers at Stanford have found a way around the problem. They have developed a working prototype for a cardiac device that uses both inductive and radiative power transmission, eliminating the need for batteries and allowing wireless charging.
The engineers had a couple of problems to overcome to make this possible. It was previously thought that high frequencies were needed to deliver power wirelessly. The problem with this idea, though, is that this kind of signal could not penetrate the human body deep enough to the 5cm depth within the body it needed to.
It is possible to penetrate the body with a lower frequency, but that would require and implant to have an antenna too large to work as an implant. The problem was overcome by the engineers by using a combination of the different kinds of power transmission. They were able to get the high-frequency signals to penetrate using alternating waves of electric and magnetic fields.
According to the engineers, that allowed a tenfold increase in power delivery, 50 microwatts to a millimetre radius antenna. Another benefit is that is it designed to garner power regardless of in orientation to the power source. This concept has some exciting applications and Stanford is confident battery powered implants will now be a thing of the past in the near future.
This kind of technology has the potential to flow into mobile gadgets as well. Imagine your phone charges whenever you are in your home, with no need to worry about forgetting to plug it in to charge before leaving. This tech can have an influence on all our lives, not just cardiac patients.
Source: Stanford Engineering
