{"title":"BioMEMS-enabled gastrointestinal biomechanical energy harvesting for self-powered ingestible microdevices","authors":"Omkar Vishnu Daware, Chetana Krushna Belkare","doi":"10.1007/s10544-026-00821-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p> The increasing development of ingestible medical devices for gastrointestinal diagnostics, drug delivery, and physiological monitoring has created a growing demand for reliable and long-lasting power sources. Conventional batteries limit device lifetime, increase capsule size, and raise safety concerns, making biomechanical energy harvesting from gastrointestinal motility a promising alternative for self-powered ingestible systems. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of biomechanical energy harvesting from gastrointestinal mechanical activity for powering ingestible biomedical devices, with emphasis on energy sources, transduction mechanisms, materials, system integration, limitations, and future research directions. Recent literature on gastrointestinal biomechanics and energy harvesting technologies was analyzed, focusing on major transduction mechanisms such as piezoelectric, triboelectric, and electromagnetic generators. The review also evaluates material selection, device architectures, encapsulation strategies, and power management circuits from a system-level integration perspective. Piezoelectric, triboelectric, and electromagnetic energy harvesters demonstrate the ability to convert low-frequency gastrointestinal mechanical energy into electrical energy suitable for ultra-low-power biomedical devices. Hybrid energy harvesting systems improve energy reliability and output performance. However, several challenges remain, including low energy density, variability in gastrointestinal mechanical forces, miniaturization constraints, material durability, electrical conversion losses, and lack of standardized testing protocols. Biomechanical energy harvesting has significant potential to enable battery-free ingestible biomedical devices. Future developments in hybrid energy systems, ultra-low-power electronics, biodegradable materials, and adaptive power management are expected to support the development of fully autonomous self-powered ingestible medical devices.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":490,"journal":{"name":"Biomedical Microdevices","volume":"28 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4000,"publicationDate":"2026-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biomedical Microdevices","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10544-026-00821-1","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, BIOMEDICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The increasing development of ingestible medical devices for gastrointestinal diagnostics, drug delivery, and physiological monitoring has created a growing demand for reliable and long-lasting power sources. Conventional batteries limit device lifetime, increase capsule size, and raise safety concerns, making biomechanical energy harvesting from gastrointestinal motility a promising alternative for self-powered ingestible systems. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of biomechanical energy harvesting from gastrointestinal mechanical activity for powering ingestible biomedical devices, with emphasis on energy sources, transduction mechanisms, materials, system integration, limitations, and future research directions. Recent literature on gastrointestinal biomechanics and energy harvesting technologies was analyzed, focusing on major transduction mechanisms such as piezoelectric, triboelectric, and electromagnetic generators. The review also evaluates material selection, device architectures, encapsulation strategies, and power management circuits from a system-level integration perspective. Piezoelectric, triboelectric, and electromagnetic energy harvesters demonstrate the ability to convert low-frequency gastrointestinal mechanical energy into electrical energy suitable for ultra-low-power biomedical devices. Hybrid energy harvesting systems improve energy reliability and output performance. However, several challenges remain, including low energy density, variability in gastrointestinal mechanical forces, miniaturization constraints, material durability, electrical conversion losses, and lack of standardized testing protocols. Biomechanical energy harvesting has significant potential to enable battery-free ingestible biomedical devices. Future developments in hybrid energy systems, ultra-low-power electronics, biodegradable materials, and adaptive power management are expected to support the development of fully autonomous self-powered ingestible medical devices.
期刊介绍：
Biomedical Microdevices: BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary periodical devoted to all aspects of research in the medical diagnostic and therapeutic applications of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (BioMEMS) and nanotechnology for medicine and biology.
General subjects of interest include the design, characterization, testing, modeling and clinical validation of microfabricated systems, and their integration on-chip and in larger functional units. The specific interests of the Journal include systems for neural stimulation and recording, bioseparation technologies such as nanofilters and electrophoretic equipment, miniaturized analytic and DNA identification systems, biosensors, and micro/nanotechnologies for cell and tissue research, tissue engineering, cell transplantation, and the controlled release of drugs and biological molecules.
Contributions reporting on fundamental and applied investigations of the material science, biochemistry, and physics of biomedical microdevices and nanotechnology are encouraged. A non-exhaustive list of fields of interest includes: nanoparticle synthesis, characterization, and validation of therapeutic or imaging efficacy in animal models; biocompatibility; biochemical modification of microfabricated devices, with reference to non-specific protein adsorption, and the active immobilization and patterning of proteins on micro/nanofabricated surfaces; the dynamics of fluids in micro-and-nano-fabricated channels; the electromechanical and structural response of micro/nanofabricated systems; the interactions of microdevices with cells and tissues, including biocompatibility and biodegradation studies; variations in the characteristics of the systems as a function of the micro/nanofabrication parameters.
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