Distributed battery-free bioelectronic implants with improved network power transfer efficiency via magnetoelectrics

Abstract

Networks of miniature implants could enable simultaneous sensing and stimulation at different locations in the body, such as the heart and central or peripheral nervous system. This capability would support precise disease tracking and treatment or enable prosthetic technologies with many degrees of freedom. However, wireless power and data transfer are often inefficient through biological tissues, particularly as the number of implanted devices increases. Here we show that magnetoelectric wireless data and power transfer supports a network of millimetre-sized bioelectronic implants in which system efficiency improves with additional devices. We demonstrate wireless, battery-free networks ranging from one to six implants, where the total system efficiency increases from 0.2% to 1.3%, with each node receiving 2.2 mW at 1 cm distance. We show proof-of-concept networks of miniature spinal cord stimulators and cardiac pacing devices in large animals via efficient and robust wireless power transfer. These magnetoelectric implants provide a scalable network architecture of bioelectronic implants for next-generation electronic medicine.