International Conference on Information Technology and Management Innovation (ICITMI 2015)

Wireless Charging Device for Artificial Cardiac Pacemaker

Quan Xiong1, a *
1
School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191
a
[email protected]

Keywords: wireless power transfer; magnetic-coupled; cardiac pacemaker; battery charging

Abstract. To overcome the limitation of energy supply for artificial cardiac pacemaker, this paper
investigated a wireless charging device based on the magnetic coupling resonant wireless transfer
(MCR-WPT) technique. We designed the bilayer coupled coils for energy transmission, which had
twice power factor than monolayer coils. The frequency is 200 kHz when the MCR-WPT system
was in resonance. Furthermore, we put the titanium alloy case behind the receiver coil to simulate
the environment of artificial cardiac pacemaker. At last, we have done the charging experiment.

Introduction
The cardiac pacemaker has benefit millions of patients until now, however, energy supply has
always been the main limitation to its application. The magnetic coupling resonant wireless power
transfer (MCR-WPT) technique is based on an induced magnetic field, operating under the
condition of strongly coupled magnetic resonance between two coils in midrange transmission [1].
The MCR-WPT technique with chargeable lithium-ion battery could well solve the problem of
energy supply for cardiac pacemaker and avoid the postoperative infection. Currently, the study of
wireless power transfer in implantable device concentrates on coil optimization design [2-4],
frequency optimization selection [5-7], and circuit design [8-10] and so on. However, the study in
energy supply for artificial cardiac pacemaker has been rarely investigated and most of people
utilize receiver coil to replace battery directly powering the pacemaker [11], while the experimental
subjects are often mice and it could not apply in the humanity [12].
In this paper, we investigated a wireless charging device for artificial cardiac pacemaker based
on the MCR-WPT technique, applying the bilayer coil design to make two coils coupling stronger,
and the charging experiment has been done to test the device.

Coil design
The transmitter and receiver coils are the key part of the whole device, which decide whether the
system operates well. To make the two coils coupled stronger, we designed the bilayer coil.
Compared to the monolayer coil, the bilayer coil has fourfold inductance and only twice resistance
than the monolayer coil. Then the bilayer coil has twice power factor than the monolayer coil, thus
the coupling of the two coils elevated. The two coils are made by printed circuit board (PCB), so
their inductances are stable and easier to compensate. The transmitter coil is the regular plane circle
design, as shown in Fig. 1(a), while the receiver coil needs to fit the surface of the pacemaker, so its
shape is irregular, as shown in Fig. 1(b). Furthermore, the receiver coil applies the special flexible
print circuit, which can bend in 360°, so it can better fit the surface of the pacemaker.

© 2015. The authors - Published by Atlantis Press 765

 (a) Transmitter coil (b) Receiver coil
Fig. 1 The coupled two coils

Circuit design
The circuit of the wireless charging device are shown in Fig. 2. The primary and secondary coils are
separated by an 8mm air gap. The whole device consists of four parts. The first part is energy
source, containing a signal generator and a signal amplifier, which provides a 200 kHz sinusoidal
voltage to power the system. The second part are the coupled coils and their compensating circuit,
the system was in series-parallel compensating model, this model is easy to tune and the secondary
part can get higher voltage. The third part consists of a schottky diode and a zener diode for
rectifying and being a 5V DC power source for the last part. The last part is the charging circuit
achieved by the IC SLM4900 and its application circuit, which can charge a single 4.2V lithium-ion
battery. The resistance Rset can adjust the charging current, and maximum is 800mA.

M
+i D1 10µF
t ir 1kΩ
Lt Lr Cr
uin D2
Rt Rr

- Ct GREEN RED SLM4900

d
GND
10µF BAT

2K
RSET

Fig. 2 circuit of the wireless charging device

Battery selection
Considering the heat of the coils and the psychological states of patients, the charging process
should not last too long. Actually, 30 minutes could be suitable, so the capacity of the lithium-ion
battery should be chosen considerately. From the data [13], the 0.92Ah lithium battery for
single-chamber pacemaker could last 10.4 years and the 1.3Ah lithium battery for dual-chamber
pacemaker could last 11.3 years. So we chose a 1050 mAh lithium-ion battery at last, and we plan
to charge the battery when its remaining power decreases to 80%. The battery longevity is shown in
the equation (1),
L = Qdel / 8766I (1)

I is the current output of the pacemaker, usually 10μA [14], L is the battery longevity. From the
equation (1), 20% power of our battery can last 2.39 years.

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 In the wireless charging device, we set the charging current 450 mA. To charge the battery from
80% to 100%, it needs about 28 minutes, meeting our requirements.

Charging experiment
In the charging experiment, we put a 31.4mm×47.4mm×8.1mm titanium alloy case behind the
receiver coil to simulate the environment of pacemaker, as shown in Fig. 3(a), and the distance
between the receive coil and titanium alloy case was 4mm, the distance between the transmission
coil and titanium case was 12mm. The whole device is shown in Fig. 3(b).

(a) (b)
Fig.3 the wireless charging device

The frequency of power source was 200 kHz, and the original voltage of lithium-ion battery was
3.9912V. Measured in the experiment, the input voltage uin was 26.3V (peak-peak), the input
current iin was 4.7A (peak-peak). The charging curve is shown in Fig. 4, the whole process lasted 32
minutes and the voltage of battery increased from 3.9912V to 4.2060V, reaching the expectation.
Ubat

4.2
Ubat (V)

4.1

4.0

0 10 20 30
t (min)

Fig. 4 the charging curve

Conclusion
This paper investigated the wireless charging device for artificial cardiac pacemaker based on the
magnetic coupling resonant wireless transfer technique. The bilayer coil design achieved stronger
coupling and stable energy transmission. The titanium alloy case simulated the actual environment
that made the statistics more reliable. Furthermore, the experiment achieved charging the battery
from 3.9912V to 4.2060V in 32 minutes, reaching our expectation and fulfilling the demand of
power supply for artificial cardiac pacemaker.

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