RF Inductive Link Data and Power Communication for Medical Implants

Abstract

To improve the quality of life of a patient, implantable stimulator systems such as cardiac pacemakers, defibrillation systems, implants based on orthopedic instruments, cochlear implants, implants used for stimulating deeper brain and spinal cord regions are widely used by clinicians in medical practices. There are two major challenges in the development of these implantable microelectronic devices i.e. size and consumption of power because the procedure of implantation to the patient should be minimally invasive. The optimal choice for these implants is not the utilization of batteries due to limited battery time, large size, and leakage current that can damage the body tissues. The long-term implantation of these devices in the body needs an external transcutaneous wireless connection that charges the internal battery to be utilized as a power supply. This thesis presents an inductive link power and data communication for medical implantable devices. The initial and final designs of the project are presented and efficiently implemented on a PCB sheet. The power communication is tested in different media such as air, polyurethane (skin) and wood (bone). The results show that power is efficiently transmitted from the primary to secondary side without any power loss. Similarly, data communication is also tested in these three-media using UART. The accuracy is 100 percent on 100 bytes’ transmission but on transmitting 1000 bytes 99.9 % results are achieved. Additionally, a comparison of the data transmission in these media is also presented.