Energy harvesting devices as long lasting power sources for the next generation pacemakers

Abstract

This paper presents devices for harvesting energy from regular blood pressure variation in heart cavities. Specific challenges of this concept are analyzed. First, a very flexible and hermetic packaging solution is proposed. Then, piezoelectric and electrostatic transducers are conceived and optimized for the pacemaker application. According to our simulations and experiments, the proposed devices should provide the targeted electrical energy of 10 μJ per heartbeat in real environment.