Application of Wireless Power Transfer Technology to Implantable Medical Devices

Abstract

Recently, implantable medical devices (IMDs) have been developed and used in humans to increase the effectiveness and convenience of medical devices. However, even in the case of IMD, due to the limitation of battery life, it is necessary to replace the battery through a short cycle and reoperation. Research is being conducted to apply wireless power transfer (WPT) technology to the IMD to reduce the reoperation cycle and reduce the battery size. Due to IMD being inserted into the human body, there are many considerations to apply WPT. In this paper, the basic principle of WPT and design conditions for the WPT system for IMD are explained. We subsequently provide a review and survey of research on WPT systems for IMD. This paper focuses on the design method and design direction of the WPT system for IMD.