IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO.
2, FEBRUARY 2016
Wireless Power Transfer Charging System
for AIMDs and Pacemakers
Tommaso Campi, Silvano Cruciani, Federica Palandrani, Valerio De Santis, Senior Member, IEEE,
Akimasa Hirata, Senior Member, IEEE, and Mauro Feliziani, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper deals with the electric and magnetic field
(EMF) safety aspects of a wireless power transfer (WPT) system
based on magnetic resonant coupling between two coils. The pri-
mary coil is assumed to be on-body, while the secondary coil is as-
sumed to be inside the human body and connected to a battery
recharge system of an active implantable medical device such as
a pacemaker. This study allows us to identify a good preliminary
solution of the WPT coil configuration, compensation capacitor
topology, and operational frequency. Demonstrative WPT systems
operating at two different frequencies are proposed in order to
verify the WPT performances. The EMF safety has been finally
assessed by numerical dosimetry studies using anatomically real-
istic human body models revealing no particular concerns about
this application.
Index Terms—Active implantable medical device (AIMD), mag-
netic resonant coupling, electric and magnetic field (EMF) safety,
numerical dosimetry, pacemaker, wireless power transfer (WPT).
I. INTRODUCTION
A N ACTIVE implantable medical device (AIMD) is a
medical device that is equipped for its functioning with a
source of electrical energy and is totally or partially introduced,
surgically or medically, into the human body [1]. The AIMD
main functions are as follows:
• to apply a therapy, usually by delivering electrical signals
to some organs or tissues;
• to monitor relevant parameters or signals in order to avoid
risks to the patient or to optimize his treatment.
AIMDs usually are capable of measuring and analyzing elec-
trical and mechanical physiological signals. They transmit this
information (monitoring function) or use it as input data for the
therapy. Examples of AIMDs are left ventricular assist devices
(LVADs), cardiac pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defib-
rillators (ICDs), etc.
One of the major issues with AIMDs is the reduced lifetime of
the battery. Therefore, a surgery intervention could be necessary
Manuscript received March 05, 2015; revised May 21, 2015, August 16,
2015, and November 27, 2015; accepted December 12, 2015. Date of publi-
cation January 11, 2016; date of current version February 03, 2016.
T. Campi, S. Cruciani, F. Palandrani, V. De Santis, and M. Feliziani
are with the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering
and Economics, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila 67100, Italy (e-mail:
tommaso.campi8888@gmail.com; silvano.cruciani@univaq.it;
santis@ieee.org; federica.palandrani@gmail.com; mauro.feliziani@univaq.it).
A. Hirata is with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya 466-855, Japan (e-mail: ahi-
rata@nitech.ac.jp).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2015.2511011
0018-9480 © 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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633
to replace the AIMD battery. In order to avoid such an issue,
a suitable solution could be the use of wireless power transfer
(WPT) systems to recharge the battery [2]–[15]. With this kind
of technology, the power can be successfully transferred from a
transmitting coil to a receiving coil by means of magnetic res-
onant coupling, but there are several critical aspects in the de-
sign of the coil system that require further investigation. One
of the most important aspects is the choice of the operational
frequency. Lower frequencies will improve the penetration of
the magnetic field inside the body, but the WPT performances
in terms of efficiency and transferred power will be compro-
mised. On the other hand, higher transmitting frequencies could
produce eddy current losses, tissue heating, and generate elec-
tromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues in the electronic cir-
cuitry of the AIMD. The applicable frequencies are also reg-
ulated by international standards. Unlicensed frequencies are:
133/150 kHz, 13.56 MHz, 868/915 MHz, 2.45 GHz, 5.2 GHz,
and 5.8 GHz. In Europe, other frequencies can also be allowed
in the range of 9–315 kHz [16], [17]. Considering the afore-
mentioned aspects, a quite low frequency (LF) (
and a quite high frequency (HF) (
kHz)
MHz) are hereby
compared in terms of WPT performances and electric and mag-
netic field (EMF) safety aspects. These frequencies have been
selected as a good compromise between the efficiency of the
WPT system and the field penetration in the human body.
Another important aspect in the AIMD design is the
recharging time of the battery that must be limited to a max-
imum of a few hours. It means that the power transferred to the
load must be relatively high, leading to a significant value of
the coil currents, but it is also required that these currents do
not produce excessive heating in the biological tissues due to
the power losses in the coil conductors. Therefore, the receiver
coil that is in direct contact with the device embedded in the
biological tissue must be designed with a low number of turns
and with conductors of large cross section for limiting the
resistive losses and, thus, the thermal dissipation [18]. The
currents are also sources of the electromagnetic field that must
preferably be compliant with the safety standard limits even
for medical exposure [19]–[21]. In other words, currents and
losses must be controlled and limited.
The aim of this paper is to develop an adequate simulation
v.de-
procedure to assess the compliance with the EMF safety stan-
dards for a pacemaker equipped with a WPT system. Assuming
the primary coil to be on-body and the secondary coil to be
in-body, different configurations of the WPT coils and pace-
maker case with or without the presence of a shield, are an-
alyzed by the co-simulation of a numerical tool for time-har-
 634 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016

monic magnetic field calculations and an equivalent circuit to

predict coil currents and voltages. On the basis of the co-simu-
lation results, two demonstrative WPT systems operating at the
two considered frequencies are then realized and tested. Finally,
the EMF safety aspects are investigated by assessing the nu-
merical dosimetry using very sophisticated human body models
(HBMs).

II. MODELING AND SIMULATION

A. WPT Equivalent Circuit

The simplified electrical circuit used to model the WPT
system is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of two separate coils of
self-inductances and coupled by a mutual inductance
that models the inductive coupling. and are the
equivalent resistances modeling the losses of the primary and
secondary coils, respectively. The mutual resistance can be
assumed to be negligible at the considered frequencies for the
low value of biological tissues conductivity, and it is not repre-
sented in Fig. 1(a). The different compensation configurations
of and used for the magnetic resonant coupling are as
follows:
• SS: series-compensated primary coil;
series-compensated secondary coil;
• SP: series-compensated primary coil;
parallel-compensated secondary coil; Fig. 1. (a) Equivalent circuit of two coupled coils. Compensated terminations:
• PS: parallel-compensated primary coil; (b) primary circuit series-compensation and (c) parallel compensation; (d) sec-
ondary circuit series-compensation and (e) parallel compensation.
series-compensated secondary coil;
• PP: parallel-compensated primary coil;
parallel-compensated secondary coil. (1b)
For each configuration, the values of and are ade-
quately chosen to obtain the resonance condition at the con- Secondary coil lumped parameters and are calculated
sidered frequency [3]. The source and the load are represented in a similar way when assuming and .
by simple analogical devices. The primary winding is fed by a The mutual inductance is given by
time–harmonic voltage source with small internal resistance
while the load is modeled by a simple resistance . The (2)
efficiency is evaluated as , where is the real
power on the resistive load and is the where is the secondary voltage obtained for and
real power at the input port of the primary circuit with and .
being the primary port voltage and current, respectively, while
the symbol is used for the conjugate value. C. Electro-Geometrical Specifications
The coils are designed to maximize the WPT efficiency at the
B. Lumped Circuit Parameter Extraction two considered frequencies. The electro-geometrical specifica-
The extraction of the lumped circuit parameters is based tions and constraints, dictated by the external dimensions of the
on the field distribution in the considered domain, which is pacemaker case and circuitry, are as follows:
obtained by a numerical solution of the time-harmonic magneto • circular planar coils;
quasi-static (MQS) field equations using the finite-element • internal radius of the primary coil: mm;
method (FEM) taking into account the frequency-dispersive • external radius of the secondary coil: mm;
behavior of biological tissues. After solving the MQS field • separation distance between the stacked coils: mm;
equations there are several theoretical methods that can be • wire section: mm (AWG 22);
used to extract the lumped self and mutual inductances [14]. • source resistance m ;
Applying Ohm’s law, it is sufficient to inject a time–harmonic • load power: W;
current in the primary circuit and to measure the voltage • load resistance: .
drop when . In particular, the resistance can be The secondary coil external diameter is fixed in order to fit
obtained from the real part of the input impedance and the dimensions of a generic pacemaker, while the primary coil
the self-inductance from the imaginary part as is chosen with the inner diameter slightly greater than the outer
diameter of the secondary coil to make the system more robust
(1a) in case of coil misalignments.

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 CAMPI et al.: WPT CHARGING SYSTEM FOR AIMDs AND PACEMAKERS
For the sake of simplicity the coil conductor is assumed to be
a solid copper cylindrical wire with negligible interturn spacing.
This simple solution permits easy fabrication of the coils at
university laboratories even if the coil resistance due to skin
and proximity effects could be reduced using different shape
conductors, Litz wire at 300 kHz, or optimizing the inter-turn
spacing at 13.56 MHz [22]. In our numerical tests, not reported
here for the sake of brevity, the increase in the WPT efficiency
using inter-turn spacing and/or Litz wires is around 2% for the
test case #4. However, the coil currents do not vary significantly
and therefore the proposed simple wire/coil configuration can be
considered valid for the assessment of the EMF safety compli-
ance, which is the main goal of this study.
The load active power W has been chosen in order to
allow recharging the battery in a few hours (2–4 h), supposing
that the rectified voltage for the Li-ion rechargeable battery is in
the range of 3–5 V. Assuming, for the sake of simplicity,
V, the load resistance can be calculated as
. The load current is obtained as A.
The design variable parameters are as follows:
• number of turns in the primary coil: – ;
• number of turns on secondary coil: – ;
• resonance frequencies: kHz or MHz;
• capacitance topology (SS, SP, PS, or PP).
The maximum number of turns (i.e., ten) in the coils has been
chosen for practical reasons (weight, size) in order to obtain
more compact primary and secondary coils.
The pacemaker case has been modeled as a simple cylinder
enclosure with external radius of 25 mm, height of 10 mm, and
titanium alloy walls of thickness of 0.5 mm.
III. NUMERICAL RESULTS
A. Simulation Analyses and Results
To analyze the performances of the WPT system applied to
a pacemaker, a simplified HBM is considered using a cylinder
of multilayer biological tissue (skin/fat/muscle). The thickness
of the skin and fat layers are fixed to mm and
mm, respectively.
The following four different test cases have been considered
referred to four different configurations:
• #1) both coils are in-air (no biological tissues) [see
Fig. 2(a)];
• #2) the primary coil is in-air and the secondary coil is
in-body [see Fig. 2(b)];
• #3) the primary coil is in-air and the secondary coil is
in-body, in the presence of the pacemaker titanium case
behind the secondary coil [see Fig. 2(c)];
• #4) the primary coil is in-air and the secondary coil is
in-body in the presence of the titanium case as in test case
#3, but the pacemaker case surface in front of the secondary
coil is covered by a thin layer of ferrite of
1-mm thickness [see Fig. 2(d)].
A numerical simulation has been carried out using a field-cir-
cuit co-simulation method for each considered test case and for
each possible WPT configuration varying , , , and ca-
pacitance topology [23] when maintaining fixed and . It
means that the impedance-matching condition giving the best
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635
Fig. 2. Sketch of the 2-D axial symmetric configurations. (a) Test case #1.
(b) Test case #2. (c) Test case #3. (d) Test case #4.
performances can be found varying the coil configuration
and the frequency , rather than adapting the load to the
circuit. The proposed method consists of the extraction of the
lumped parameters by the numerical procedure described above
using the commercial software COMSOL. The efficiencies
have then been calculated by the analysis of the equivalent cir-
cuits considering each possible simple configuration of the ca-
pacitor compensation (e.g., SS, SP, PS, and PP) at the frequen-
cies of 300 kHz and 13.56 MHz. Note that the efficiency de-
pends only on the topological capacitor configuration of the sec-
ondary circuit when is fixed where the active power in
obviously being zero. It means that by fixing the efficiencies
of the SS and PS configurations are the same, as well as those of
the SP and PP configurations. At the end of the simulations, the
optimal number of turns that maximizes the efficiency
for SS and SP circuit topologies has been found at the frequen-
cies of 300 kHz and 13.56 MHz, as reported in Tables I and II,
respectively. In test case #3, the inductive coupling between the
two coils is negatively affected by the presence of metallic ob-
jects in the surrounding (e.g., the titanium case of a pacemaker).
Indeed, the magnetic field produced by the WPT system pro-
duces eddy currents in the metallic case modifying the magnetic
field behavior and, consequently, the values of the self and mu-
tual inductances [23]–[25]. On the contrary, the ferrite layer in
test case #4 acts as a magnetic shield diverting the magnetic flux
lines before they meet the metallic pacemaker case [24], [25].
As a consequence, the magnetic field behavior is modified, but
the WPT performances are not necessarily lessened since the
ferrite shield can be considered as a portion of magnetic core
that reduces the total magnetic reluctance.
From the observation of the results, the following can be
stated:
• the efficiency at 13.56 MHz is greater than that at
300 kHz;
 636 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016
TABLE I
OPTIMAL CHOICE OF THE NUMBER OF TURNS AT 300 kHz
TABLE II
OPTIMAL CHOICE OF THE NUMBER OF TURNS AT 13.56 MHz
TABLE III
CALCULATED CIRCUIT PARAMETERS FOR TEST CASE #4
• at 13.56 MHz the best performances are obtained for the
SS compensation, but with a higher number of secondary
coil turns than that used for the SP compensation;
• at 300 kHz the best solution is obtained for the SP config-
uration.
Finally, it should be noted that the WPT performances in test
cases #1, #2, and #4 are similar. It means that we can design a
WPT system for AIMDs considering only the coils in air with
good approximation when the coil separation is mm and
when a ferrite shield is used to cover metallic case surfaces.
The circuit parameters used for evaluation are different for
any examined configuration. For brevity, the circuit parameters
are reported in Table III only for the most realistic case #4.
B. Sensitivity Analysis on Reciprocal Coil Position
To quantify the attenuation produced by the biological tissue,
a second analysis is carried out. The geometry of the coils has
the same configurations reported in Tables I and II for the two
considered frequencies, while the separation distance between
the stacked on-body coil and the in-body coil is varied in the
range of 10–60 mm. This range has been chosen not only for
pacemaker applications, but also for other AIMDs that can be
deeply embedded in the human body, e.g., miniaturized pace-
makers placed inside the chambers of the heart, endoscope cap-
sule, etc., or for overweight (fat) people.
Tables IV–VI show the calculated WPT efficiency as a func-
tion of the separation distance respectively for test cases #2,
#3, and #4 described in Section III-A. The WPT efficiencies
for test case #3 are very low for any configuration due to the
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TABLE IV
WPT EFFICIENCY IN TEST CASE #2
TABLE V
WPT EFFICIENCY IN TEST CASE #3
TABLE VI
WPT EFFICIENCY IN TEST CASE #4
presence of the unshielded metallic case (see Table V). The ef-
ficiency also decreases rapidly as increases. At 300 kHz, the
WPT system with SP compensation is the best configuration for
test cases #2 and #4 in terms of efficiency and for the limited
value of when has been fixed (see Tables IV and VI).
The SP configuration at 300 kHz achieves better results than
that at 13.56 MHz for test case #4 when mm. At the fre-
quency of 13.56 MHz, the best solution in terms of efficiency is
obtained for the SS configuration.
Although the efficiency appears to be not affected by the
primary capacitor configuration (series or parallel compensa-
tion), the same cannot be said for the source voltage nec-
essary to transfer a power W on the receiving load. The
root mean square (rms) values of for test case #4 are reported
in Fig. 3(a) and (b), where it is evident that the voltage values
for the parallel compensation of the primary circuit are exces-
sively high to be considered for practical applications. Only SS
and SP configurations can then be considered.
Subsequently, several simulations have also been carried out
in order to study the effect of the coil misalignment on the WPT
efficiency. This problem is always present in real applications of
pacemaker battery recharge and should therefore be taken into
account. We have experimentally and numerically examined the
variation mainly due to the mutual inductance variation oc-
curring with coil misalignment, as described in [15]. The con-
sidered configuration operates at 300 kHz, the planar circular
 CAMPI et al.: WPT CHARGING SYSTEM FOR AIMDs AND PACEMAKERS
Fig. 3. Voltage (rms) at frequencies of: (a) 300 kHz and (b) 13.56 MHz
calculated for test case #4.
coils are both in air with SP compensation. The primary coil has
turns and external radius mm while the sec-
ondary coil has turns and external radius mm.
The load is and the power transferred is W.
The two cylindrical coils are initially placed on parallel planes
at a separation distance mm between each other.
In the first test, the coils are rotated of an angle with re-
spect to the parallel-plane position. In the second test the coils
are on parallel planes, but the primary coil is horizontally trans-
lated by a distance with respect to the center position. In the
third test the coils are on parallel planes, but the primary is ver-
tically shifted increasing the separation between the coils. The
results obtained by the field-circuit co-simulations for the con-
sidered configurations are reported in Fig. 4 and compared with
experimental results [24].
The WPT system is powered by a full bridge inverter that
amplifies the square waveform signal generated by the function
generator. The dc input voltage is adjusted in order to obtain
the same output power in all conditions. The input power is
determined measuring the input voltage and the input current
with an oscilloscope and a current probe, respectively, while
the output power is obtained by measuring the voltage drop on
the load resistance. As can be observed, the efficiency is mostly
influenced by the separation and by the alignment of the coils,
while minor orientation errors produce a minimal effect in terms
of efficiency reduction. This is positive for the WPT recharge
of pacemakers because in real applications eventual minimal
misalignments will not deteriorate the battery charging time.
IV. DEMONSTRATOR EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Based on the results of the sensitivity analysis reported in
Tables I–III, the following two different WPT demonstrators
have been realized for charging the battery of a transcutaneous
pacemaker considering the configuration of test case #4 with
mm.
1) kHz; SP compensation; ; .
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637
Fig. 4. Efficiency versus coil misalignment. (a) Coil rotation . (b) Translation
with respect to the center of the symmetry axis. (c) Variation of the separation
distance between coils.
2) MHz; SS compensation; .
The configuration of the WPT coils and the pacemaker case are
shown in Fig. 5(a) and (b). To reproduce the presence of bio-
logical tissues all the measurements have been carried out im-
mersing the pacemaker and the secondary coil in a saline solu-
tion (0.9% solution of sodium chloride and water), while the pri-
mary coil is in the air, as shown in Fig. 5(c). This configuration
is equivalent from an electromagnetic standpoint to a configu-
ration where the secondary coil is located inside the biological
tissues (in-body) and the primary coil is located outside the body
(on-body). The circuit parameters have been measured using the
Wayne Kerr 4270 RLC meter for the configuration at 300 kHz
and the Rohde & Schwarz FSH3 with bridge FSH-Z2 as the
vector network analyzer for the configuration at 13.56 MHz, as
shown in Fig. 6. The measured and numerically extracted in-
ductances are shown in Table VII for the coils configuration at
kHz and in Table VIII for that at MHz.
The two experimental setups have been compensated
choosing proper capacitors [3]. The sinusoidal excitation signal
was given by a function generator with low output impedance
to directly drive the WPT system. The load was a 10- pre-
cision resistor. The output power, evaluated by measuring the
voltage drop across the load resistor, was fixed to 1 W. The
active input power is derived measuring the voltage, current,
 638 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016
Fig. 5. Demonstrator configuration. (a) Fabricated primary coil. (b) Secondary
coil and pacemaker case. (c) Measurement setup in saline solution.
Fig. 6. Vector network analyzer used to measure coil parameters for the con-
figuration at 13.56 MHz.
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TABLE VII
CALCULATED AND MEASURED INDUCTANCES OF THE COILS AT
kHz WITH , FOR TEST CASE #4
TABLE VIII
CALCULATED AND MEASURED INDUCTANCES OF THE COILS AT
MHz WITH , FOR TEST CASE #4
TABLE IX
CALCULATED AND MEASURED AND FOR TEST CASE #4
and phase difference by an oscilloscope and a current probe.
The measured , , and of the WPT systems were also
compared with numerical results exhibiting a good agreement
each other, as shown in Table IX.
V. EMF SAFETY GUIDELINES COMPLIANCE
A. Guidelines and Standards
According to the International Commission on Non-Ionizing
Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines [19], [20], the basic
restrictions (BRs) for human exposure to EMF at 300 kHz are
both the internal electric field and the specific absorption rate
(SAR). However, it has been shown in [26] and [27] that for
frequencies below 1–2 MHz, the dominant BR is the induced
-field, while for frequencies above it, is the SAR. The internal
-field limit at the frequency of 300 kHz is equal to 40.5 V/m
for the general public. The -field values are recommended to
be averaged over a small contiguous tissue volume of 2 2 2
mm and then the 99th percentile value should be considered
to exclude computational artifacts caused by the discretization
[19], otherwise other methods can be used [28]–[30].
The whole-body SAR is not applicable to the proposed ap-
plication because the power losses are produced by a near-field
magnetic source. Thus, the metric of interest is the local aver-
aged SAR for the head and trunk, whose limits are fixed to 2
W/kg for the general public exposure. The IEEE C95.1 BRs are
higher (internal ) or equivalent (SAR) than those of the IC-
NIRP guidelines and are therefore not considered in this work.
At the frequency of 13.56 MHz, the metric provided by both
ICNIRP 1998 [19] and IEEE C95.1 [21] is the spatial-averaged
SAR with the same limit as at 300 kHz.
 CAMPI et al.: WPT CHARGING SYSTEM FOR AIMDs AND PACEMAKERS 639

Fig. 7. 99th percentile value of the internal -field at kHz.

B. Cylindrical Simplified Configuration

The simulations for the simplified HBM consisting of a mul-

tilayer cylinder, as described in Section III-A, are carried out
considering test cases #3 and #4 shown in Fig. 2. Specifically,
the lowest values of induced -field at 300 kHz are found for the
SP topology and minimum , as shown in Fig. 7. It can also be
observed that the SP compensation is the best solution in terms
of internal -field and the limits for test case #4 are exceeded
only when mm. It should be noted that the induced
-field increases with since must be increased to supply
with a fixed W. Fig. 8. Local SAR averaged over 10 g at: (a) 300 kHz and (b) 13.56 MHz.
The calculated local SAR averaged over 10 g of contiguous
biological tissue is shown in Fig. 8(a) and (b) for kHz
and MHz, respectively.
The localized SAR for the SP configuration at 300 kHz does
not present any practical concern, while the localized SAR for
the SS configuration at 13.56 MHz can result critical only for
mm for test case #4. It should be noted that the presence
of a ferrite shield reduces the EMF safety issues as one can see
by comparing the results obtained in test cases #3 and #4.

C. HBMs

A dosimetry study is also carried out analyzing two different

anatomically based HBMs when using the optimized coil- cir-
cuit configurations (SP at 300 kHz and SS at 13.56 MHz) for test
case #4. The first HBM is based on the Utah Human Torso [31],
and is composed of the torso with lungs, heart, and a partial cir-
culatory system, as shown in Fig. 9. It is ready for FEM analysis
since the model can be discretized by irregular tetrahedra. In our
application, we have reconstructed a simplified torso model in
COMSOL after extracting the stereolithography (STL) format
of the original model. The electro-geometrical model of the sec-
ondary coils, pacemaker case, and ferrite shield have then been
introduced in the human torso region, while keeping the primary
coil in free space. The induced fields ( and SAR) are evalu-
ated using COMSOL and the IT’IS database for the dielectric
properties of biological tissues [32]. The circuit parameters are
then extracted from the FEM numerical simulations and the ef-
ficiency is calculated by the analysis of the equivalent circuit.
The obtained results are at 300 kHz and at
Fig. 9. 3-D representation of the human torso with internal organs, pacemaker
with ferrite shield, and WPT coils.
13.56 MHz, as expected. This is because the presence of biolog-
ical medium (or difference of HBMs) does not affect the -field
distribution.
The maps of and SAR in a horizontal surface ( -plane)
corresponding to the -coordinate of the cylindrical coil center
are shown in Figs. 10 and 11, respectively. The maps show
that the unaveraged values of SAR are below the BR limit of
2 W/kg for both considered frequencies. Thus, the evaluation of
the 10-g averaged quantities is not needed as compliance with
the unaveraged values is already met. The values of the induced
-field at 300 kHz are also below the limits, but for a deeper

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 640 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016
Fig. 10. Induced -field map in dB normalized to the peak value (7.68 V/m).
Fig. 11. SAR maps in dB normalized to the peak values at: (a) 300 kHz (0.0116
W/kg) and (b) 13.56 MHz (1.004 W/kg). The embedded coils and pacemaker
are colored in black.
investigation a more sophisticated HBM should be considered
in order to account for tissues inhomogeneities.
To this aim, a second anatomical model provided by the
IT’IS Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland, and known as the Duke
model [33], is adopted. This HBM represents an adult male
with more than 80 different biological tissues (see Fig. 12).
The Duke model, together with the coil sources, is modeled
in Sim4Life, which allows EM field equations solution in
LF and HF. The LF formulation is based on the solution of
the MQS field equations given in terms of magnetic vector
potential. Using the LF solver, it is not possible to introduce
metallic objects as the pacemaker case, the shield, and the coils
inside the human body. To overcome this inconvenience, we
have used the coil currents obtained by the analysis of test
case #4 as magnetic sources. This approximation is reasonable
as the biological tissue does not significantly alter the magnetic
field behavior, at least for the frequencies hereby considered.
Furthermore, the presence of the pacemaker case is not so
important when it is covered by a ferrite shield, as demonstrated
in Section III-A.
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Fig. 12. (a) Anatomical model Duke. (b) Zoom of the pacemaker area.
Fig. 13. Induced -field map in dB normalized to the peak value (8.69 V/m).
The induced -field distribution inside the torso of Duke at
the -plane normal to the -coordinate of the cylindrical coils
center is shown in Fig. 13.
Comparing Fig. 10 with Fig. 13, it can be seen that the
-fields induced in the Duke model are similar to the one
obtained in the human torso (in terms of peak value and
hot-spot location), but the spatial distribution can be signifi-
cantly different due to the change of conductivity in the more
sophisticated model. On the contrary, the use of the human torso
allowed us to extract the circuit parameters and to evaluate the
WPT performances.
VI. CONCLUSION
WPT systems based on magnetic resonant coupling at two
different frequencies (300 kHz and 13.56 MHz) have been in-
vestigated to recharge the batteries of AIMDs while being com-
pliant with the EMF safety standards. Several configurations of
compensated WPT coils in the presence of the pacemaker case
with or without a magnetic shield have been examined numeri-
cally and experimentally, considering also a possible misalign-
ment of the coils. On the basis of our results the best WPT ca-
pacitance compensations are the SP configuration at 300 kHz
and the SS configuration at 13.56 MHz. The obtained prelim-
inary results can also be improved in the future, reducing the
losses due to skin and proximity effects by the optimization of
the coil and conductor configurations.
A numerical dosimetry study assessing the compliance with
EMF safety standards has been carried out revealing that there is
 CAMPI et al.: WPT CHARGING SYSTEM FOR AIMDs AND PACEMAKERS
no concern about the possible application of WPT technology,
at least for the power considered herein and without considering
a thermal analysis, eventual EMC issues, and the presence of the
leads. These topics will be investigated in future studies.
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Tommaso Campi received the Laurea degree in
telecommunication engineering from the University
of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy, in 2014, and is cur-
rently working toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering at the University of L’Aquila.
His research interests include wireless power
transfer and electromagnetic compatibility.
Mr. Campi was the recipient of the Best Poster Pre-
sentation at the IEEE CEFC 2014, Annecy, France.
Silvano Cruciani received the Laurea degree in in-
formation and automation engineering and Ph.D. de-
gree in electrical engineering from the University of
L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy, in 2010 and 2015, respec-
tively.
He is currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher with
the University of L’Aquila. His main research in-
terests include numerical methods, electromagnetic
wave propagation in complex media, and wireless
power transfer.
 642 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016
Federica Palandrani received the Telecommu-
nication Engineering Bachelor degree from the
University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy, in 2013, and
is currently working toward the Master degree in
telecommunication engineering at the University of
L’Aquila.
Her main research interests are in the field of
numerical dosimetry for wireless power transfer
(WPT) systems and routing protocols for wireless
ad-hoc mobile networks.
Valerio De Santis (M’05–SM’15) received the
Laurea degree in telecommunication engineering
(summa cum laude) and Ph.D. degree in electrical
and computer engineering from the University
of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy, in 2006 and 2010,
respectively.
From April 2011 to May 2013, he was a Project
Leader with the Foundation for Research on Infor-
mation Technologies in Society, IT’IS Foundation,
Switzerland. From January to March 2015, he was
an Assistant Professor with the Nagoya Institute of
Technology, Nagoya, Japan. He is currently a Fellow Researcher with the Uni-
versity of L’Aquila. His current research interests include biological effects of
electromagnetic (EM) fields, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), and numer-
ical methods and techniques.
Dr. De Santis is Secretary of IEEE-ICES-TC95-SC6. He was the recipient
of the Second Best Student Paper Award of the Bioelectromagnetics Society
(BEMS) Annual Meeting, Cancun, Mexico, 2006, the Best Student Paper
Award of the IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility
(EMC), Honolulu, HI, USA, in 2007, and the Leo L. Beranek Travel Grant of
the IEEE International Symposium on EMC, Detroit, MI, USA, in 2008.
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Akimasa Hirata (S’98–M’01–SM’10) received
the B.E. and Ph.D. degrees in communications
engineering from Osaka University, Suita, Japan, in
1996 and 2000, respectively.
In 2001, he joined the Department of Commu-
nications Engineering, Osaka University, as an
Assistant Professor. In 2004, he joined the Depart-
ment of Computer Science and Engineering, Nagoya
Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan, where he
is currently a Professor. His research interests are
electromagnetics and thermodynamics in biological
tissue, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electromagnetic interference
(EMI) and computational physics.
Dr. Hirata is a Chairperson of the Subcommittee of EMF Dosimetry Mod-
eling of IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES). He
is a Member of the Main Commission of International Commission on Non-Ion-
izing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). He is a member of the Editorial Board of
Physics in Medicine and Biology (since 2010). He was an Associate Editor for
the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING (2006–2012). He is a
Fellow of the Institute of Physics.
Mauro Feliziani (M’91–SM’00) received the Elec-
trical Engineering degree from the University of
Rome “La Sapienza,” Rome, Italy, in 1983.
In 1994 he joined the University of L’Aquila,
L’Aquila, Italy, as a Full Professor of electrical en-
gineering. He has authored or coauthored more than
100 papers published in the fields of electromagnetic
compatibility (EMC) and in electromagnetic (EM)
field numerical computation.
Prof. Feliziani was an Associate Editor of the
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC
COMPATIBILITY(1995–2000). In 2003, he was the Guest Editor of a Special
Issue of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS. In 1994, he cofounded the
EMC Europe Symposium. He was the General Chairman of the EMC Europe
Symposium, Sorrento, Italy (2002) and of the EMC Europe Workshop, Rome
(2005). He was the Technical Program Committee Chair of EMC Europe 2012,
Rome, Italy. He is the Chair of the International Steering Committee, EMC
Europe Symposium.