GROUP DESIGNING COMPONENT TO EXTEND LIFE OF IMPLANTABLE DEVICES
A UK-based consortium of companies is developing an implantable microgenerator to convert energy from human body movement, including joint movement and heartbeats, into power for implanted medical devices such as pacemakers, electrical stimulators and instrumented joints.
The consortium seeks to address the device industry's need for reliable and sustainable power sources for heart devices. The group is engaged in a two-year initiative dubbed the "self-energizing implantable medical micro system" project.
The consortium includes:
Finsbury Orthopaedics, which manufactures advanced joint replacement products;
Innos, which develops nanoscale technology and will manage silicon fabrication of the device;
InVivo Technology, which will work on proposed energy capture mechanisms;
Odstock Medical, which will apply functional electrical stimulation technology;
Perpetuum, which will provide kinetic energy-harvesting microgenerator technology; and
Zarlink Semiconductor, which will provide advanced micropackaging techniques.
Body energy will be harvested by means of a microgenerator manufactured as a micro-electrical-mechanical system. "This prototype design is expected to achieve 10-100 times more power than previous attempts to harvest human energy," Zarlink said.