While galvanic coupling for intrabody communications has been proposed lately by different research groups, its use for powering active im-plantable medical devices remains almost non-existent. Here it is presented a simple analytical model able to estimate the attainable power by galvanic cou-pling based on the delivery of high frequency (> 1MHz) electric fields applied as short bursts. The results obtained with the analytical model, which is in vitro validated in the present study, indicate that ...
While galvanic coupling for intrabody communications has been proposed lately by different research groups, its use for powering active im-plantable medical devices remains almost non-existent. Here it is presented a simple analytical model able to estimate the attainable power by galvanic cou-pling based on the delivery of high frequency (> 1MHz) electric fields applied as short bursts. The results obtained with the analytical model, which is in vitro validated in the present study, indicate that time-averaged powers above 1 mW can be readily obtained in very thin (diameter < 1 mm) and short (length < 20 mm) elongated implants when fields which comply with safety standards (SAR < 10 W/kg) are present in the tissues where the implants are located. Re-markably, the model indicates that, for a given SAR, the attainable power is in-dependent of the tissue conductivity and of the duration and repetition frequen-cy of the bursts. This study reveals that galvanic coupling is a safe option to power very thin active implants, avoiding bulky components such as coils and batteries.
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