Wireless Electrical Power Delivery Using Light through Soft Skin Tissues under Misalignment and Deformation

Abstract

AbstractProviding sustainable electrical power to medical electronic implants is key to enabling the diverse functions of implants and to avoiding repetitive replacement surgeries of depleted batteries. Subcutaneous photovoltaic energy harvesting with an external light source patch can be a reliable approach that provides sufficient power using light. However, from a practical perspective, aligning the external light source patch over opaque skin by patients may affect the amount of delivered electrical power. The amount of delivered power may also be affected by the deformation of the light source and receiver patches in accordance with thin skin layers. In this paper, an experimental and analytical study on the performance of a power implant under an animal skin depending on the implantation depth, lateral misalignment with the external light patch, and bending radius and direction is presented. The experimental results indicate that the transferred power by the patches in misalignment (about 20% of the transmitter length) or in bending (≈30 mm radius) is maintained at least 90% power of the aligned and flat ones. The results provide important characteristic data that are required in designing reliable wireless power transfer systems for various types of implantable medical devices.