학술논문

A Miniaturized, Low-Frequency Magnetoelectric Wireless Power Transfer System for Powering Biomedical Implants
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems IEEE Trans. Biomed. Circuits Syst. Biomedical Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on. 18(2):438-450 Apr, 2024
Subject
Bioengineering
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Magnetic fields
Magnetoelectric effects
Magnetostriction
Magnetic resonance
Magnetoacoustic effects
Implants
Absorption
Biocompatabilty
implantable medical device (IMD)
magnetoelectric (ME)
power management circuit (PMC)
wireless power transfer (WPT)
Language
ISSN
1932-4545
1940-9990
Abstract
This work experimentally demonstrates the operation of a miniaturized magnetoelectric (ME) wireless power transfer (WPT) system by incorporating a ME transducer and a suitable interface power management circuit (PMC) for potentially powering implantable medical devices (IMD) wirelessly. A ME heterostructure is micromachined to obtain desired device dimensions of 3.5 × 5 mm$^{2}$ and to restrict the operating frequency at a clinically approved frequency of 50 kHz. The proposed work also aims to address the trade-off between the device miniaturization, power attenuation and limiting the specific absorption rate (SAR) in the human tissue. By limiting the operating frequency to 50 kHz, the SAR is reduced to less than 1 μW/kg. The fabricated device is characterized with low-intensity AC magnetic field up to 40 μT without using any DC bias, resulting in 0.4 V output voltage and 6.6 μW power across 8 k$\Omega$ load. Alignment misorientation between the Tx and Rx is studied for in-plane and out-of-plane angular rotations to confirm the device's reliability against angular misalignment. By eliminating the bulky biasing magnets, the proposed device achieves a significant size reduction compared to the previously reported works. In addition, a self-powered interface PMC is incorporated with the ME system. The PMC generates 3.5 V regulated DC voltage from the input AC voltage range 0.7 V to 3.3 V. The PMC is fabricated on a 2-layered PCB and the over all ME WPT system consumes 12 × 12 mm$^{2}$ area. The overall PMC has intrinsic current consumption less than 550 nA with peak power conversion efficiency higher than 85$\%$. The in vitro cytotoxicity analysis in the human hepatic cell line WRL-68 confirmed the biocompatibility of the Parylene-C encapsulated ME device for up to 7 days, suggesting its potential use in implantable electronic devices for biomedical and clinical applications.