Radio wave powered cardiac implant. Free Technical Library News

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RF-powered cardiac implant

14.09.2012

A team of Stanford engineers has unveiled a miniature implantable heart device powered by radio waves instead of batteries. The device measures only about 0,8 mm and could fit on the tip of a needle.

The results have been published in Applied Physics Letters. Scientists have demonstrated the operation of a millimetric device implanted in the chest to a depth of about five cm directly on the surface of the human heart. Until now, such a depth was considered inaccessible to radio waves. Engineers believe that this is only the first step in the production of wireless implants. In addition to heart implants, these can be endoscopes, pacemakers, brain stimulators and other medical devices where small size and power are critical.

Implants have revolutionized medicine in their time. Currently, such devices - pacemakers, cochlear implants, etc. - provide the proper quality of life for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of patients. But in the process of designing these devices, one has to solve complex engineering problems. The size of the nutrient element and the time of its operation are critical. For example, in a pacemaker, the battery occupies up to half of its total volume. And when the battery runs out, the person needs a new operation. The ability to receive energy through radio waves solves both of these problems.

According to existing mathematical models, it was assumed that high-frequency waves do not penetrate too deeply into the tissues of the human body. Because of this, there have been no attempts to create such implants so far - low-frequency transmitters and, consequently, large antennas would be required. Too big to be implanted in the body. However, a team of scientists led by Ada Poon, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, has refuted this notion.

Electric waves really quickly dissipate in tissues, but radio waves, with proper selection of frequencies, can penetrate to great depths. By revising the models, Ada Poon and her co-authors showed that in a certain high-frequency range, the power of the transmitted energy increases by about ten times. This means that the receiving antennas can be 10 times smaller, which means that there will no longer be problems with the implant due to size. At the same time, the optimal frequency at which the device operates is capable of producing about 50 microwatts of energy, which significantly exceeds the needs of existing pacemakers - 8 microwatts.

The developers have applied for a patent on the design of the wireless implant antenna and plan to continue working to create the most efficient devices that meet the sanitary standards set by the IEEE.

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