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System Wirelessly Powers Medical Implants the Size of a Grain of Rice

Stanford University electrical engineer Ada Poon has invented a way to wirelessly transfer power deep inside the body, and then use this power to run tiny electronic medical gadgets such as pacemakers, nerve stimulators, or sensors. The new technology eliminates the bulky batteries and clumsy recharging systems that prevent medical devices from being more widely used, and could provide a path toward a new type of medicine that allows physicians to treat diseases with electronics rather than drugs. Poon's team built an electronic device smaller than a grain of rice that acts as a pacemaker. It can be powered or recharged wirelessly by holding a power source about the size of a credit card above the device, outside the body.

Topics:
Drug Delivery Electronic Components Electronics & Computers Implants & Prosthetics Medical Power Power Transmission RF & Microwave Electronics Semiconductors & ICs Sensors

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    Transcript

    00:00:01 [Music] Stanford University Electronics can do remarkable things in the body examples are Pacemaker and deep brain stimulators but we need to make these devices as small as possible in order to implant them easily in the body in current medical devices battery is the largest part of an implant to make the battery smaller

    00:00:29 and to EST is Lifetime we can power them wirelessly conventionally electromagnetic power transfer operates in the near field to avoid the interaction with biological tissue but Power cannot reach small devices deep inside the body as a researcher in Wireless technologist I'm very interested in knowing how electromagnetic fields interact with the

    00:00:53 biological tissue and we discovered that there is a Swit spot in between the Nei where Electric Tool brush gets the power from and the farfield where we have the Wireless Communications so we call this switch spot the myu to implant medical Electronics in the body they need to be made as small as possible most devices are powered by

    00:01:19 batteries which are very bulky to eliminate them inductively coupled coils have been used to wirelessly transfer power however the electromagnetic field decays Qui quickly requiring large receiving coils Midfield Wireless powering overcomes these problems a flat structure interacts with tissue inducing propagating waves that Converge on a micro device implanted deep in the body

    00:01:45 a micro implant consisting of a power harvesting coil integrated circuits electrodes and fixation structures all packed into a device the size of a grain of rice can now be implanted and safely powered almost anywhere in the body with this power transfer method we can miniaturize the last thing that makes medical devices so large which is the battery and make it about the size of a

    00:02:09 grain of rice we can power it uh nearly anywhere in the body including the heart or the brain using integrated circuit technology we can stimulate nerves put sensors inside the body and even deliver drugs while keeping the device about the same size the miniaturized device could be placed directly at a nerve bundle it could be programmed ramed to stimulate or sense electrical signals passing

    00:02:33 along the nerve these tiny wireless devices could treat a broad range of diseases such as Parkinson's depression epilepsy heart failure and chronic pain Midfield Wireless powering may open new avenues for electronic medicines that restore or augment physiological functions with lower risk less side effects and greater therapeutic benefits I hope this technology will

    00:03:00 provide a step towards a new type of medicine where diseases can be treated by um Electronics rather than drust for more please visit us at stanford.edu