Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Leadless Pacemakers

Approximately 1 million new pacemakers are implanted worldwide annually. Nevertheless, the battery lifespan of a traditional pacemaker is limited and hence many patients undergo replacement surgeries each year. Furthermore, these devices present complications such as lead dysfunction and pocket infections. This project aims to build a novel energy harvester to ensure self-powered and lifelong lasting pacemakers. In this way, the replacement of pacemakers is redundant, and the related problems are significantly reduced, opening the possibility of changing from the traditional pacemakers to leadless and intra-cardiac pacemakers. In this project, an innovative piezoelectric-based energy harvester design is proposed to provide lifetime required electrical power for medical devices. As a multi-disciplinary project, E-HELP addresses the lack of durable energy harvesting systems with objectives of design, optimization, development and integration.