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Transcutaneous Energy Transfer System for Powering Implantable Biomedical

Devices

Chapter · January 2009

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-92841-6_57

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 Transcutaneous Energy Transfer System for Powering Implantable
Biomedical Devices
T. Dissanayake1, D. Budgett1, 2, A.P. Hu3, S. Malpas2,4 and L. Bennet4
1
Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
2
Telemetry Research, Auckland, New Zealand
3
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
4
Department of Physiology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract — Time varying magnetic fields can be used to of variation in coupling is due to posture changes of the
transfer power across the skin to drive implantable biomedical patient causing variation in the alignment between the pri-
devices without the use of percutaneous wires. However the mary and the secondary coils. The typical separations be-
coupling between the external and internal coils will vary tween the internal and external coils are in the range of 10-
according to orientation and posture. Other potential sources
of power delivery variations arise from changes in circuit
20mm. If insufficient power is delivered to the load then the
parameters and loading conditions. To maintain correct device implanted device will not operate properly. If excessive
function, the power delivered must be regulated to deal with power is delivered, then it must be dissipated as heat with
these variations. This paper presents a TET system with a the potential for causing tissue damage. Therefore it is im-
closed loop frequency based power regulation method to de- portant to deliver the right amount of power matching the
liver the right amount of power to the load under variable load demand.
coupling conditions. The system is capable of regulating power
for axially aligned separations of up to 10mm and lateral dis- Skin
Primary Coil
placements of up to 20mm when delivering 10W of power. The
Magnetic Secondary Coil
TET system was implanted in a sheep and the temperature of coupling
implanted components is less than 38.4 degrees over a 24 hour Power
period. DC Pickup Load
Converter
Supply
Keywords — Magnetic field, coupling, Transcutaneous En-
ergy Transfer (TET) Power
feedback
Controller

I. INTRODUCTION Fig. 1 Block diagram of a TET system

High power implantable biomedical devices such as car-

Power can be regulated either in the external or the im-
diac assist devices and artificial heart pumps require electri-
planted system. However, regulation in the implanted sys-
cal energy for operation. Presently this energy is provided
tem results in dissipation of heat in the implanted circuitry
by percutaneous leads from the implant to an external pow-
[3]. Furthermore, it also increases the size and weight of the
er supply [1]. This method of power delivery has the poten-
implanted circuitry therefore power regulation in the exter-
tial risk of infection associated with wires piercing through
nal system is preferred over the implanted system. There are
the skin. Transcutaneous Energy Transfer (TET) enables
two main methods of regulating power in TET systems,
power transfer across the skin without direct electrical con-
magnitude and frequency control methods. In the case of
nectivity. This is implemented through a transcutaneous
magnitude control, input voltage to the primary power con-
transformer where the primary and the secondary coils of
verter is varied in order to vary the power delivered to the
the transformer are separated by the patient’s skin providing
load. This method of control is very common in TET sys-
two electrically isolated systems. A TET system is illus-
tems however it does not take into account the miss-match
trated in figure 1. The electromagnetic field produced by the
of the resonant frequency of the secondary resonant tank
primary coil penetrates the skin and produces an induced
and the operating frequency of the external power converter.
voltage in the secondary coil which is then rectified to
This miss-match in frequency reduces the power transferred
power the biomedical device.
to the load, consequently, a larger input voltage is required
Compared to percutaneous wires, TET systems become
which results in a reduction in the overall power efficiency
more complex to operate under variable coupling conditions
of the system. Frequency control involves varying the oper-
as it result in a variation in power transfer [2]. One source
ating frequency of the primary power converter to vary the

Chwee Teck Lim, James C.H. Goh (Eds.): ICBME 2008, Proceedings 23, pp. 235–239, 2009
www.springerlink.com
236 T. Dissanayake, D. Budgett, A.P. Hu, S. Malpas and L. Bennet

power delivered to the load. Depending on the actual power PWM signal is passed through a Digital to Analogue Con-
requirement of the pickup load, the operating frequency of verter (DAC), in order to obtain a variable reference volt-
the primary power converter is varied so the secondary age. This variable reference voltage is then used to vary the
prick-up is either tuned/detuned, thus the effective power frequency of the primary resonant converter which in turn
delivered to the implantable load is regulated [4]. The sys- varies the power delivered to the implantable system. The
tem discussed in this paper uses frequency control to control response time of the system is approximately 360ms.
power delivery to the load, and a Radio Frequency (RF) link
is used to provide wireless feedback from the implanted A. Frequency controller
circuit to the external frequency controller.
The frequency controller employs a switched capacitor
control method described in [7]. The controller varies the
II. SYSTEM ARCITECHTURE overall resonant frequency of the primary resonant tank in
order to tune/detune to the secondary resonant frequency.
The TET system is designed to deliver power in the The frequency of the primary circuit is adjusted by varying
range of 5W to 25W. Figure 2 illustrates the architecture of the effective capacitance of the primary resonant tank. This
the overall system. A DC voltage is supplied to the system is illustrated in figure 3.
with an external battery pack. A current fed push pull reso-
nant converter is used to generate a high frequency sinusoi-
dal current across the primary coil. The magnetic coupling Secondary resonant
L1 L2 Primary resonant tank tank
between the primary and the secondary systems produces a
sinusoidal voltage in the secondary coil which is rectified CS
VIN CP LP LS Load
by the power conditioning circuit in the pickup to provide a
CV1 CV2
stable DC output to the implanted load. As shown in figure
2, a DC inductor is added to the secondary pick up follow- SV1 S1 S2 SV2
ing the rectifier bridge in order to maximize the power
transfer to the load. The DC inductor aids to sustain a con-
tinuous current flow in the pick up [5].
Fig. 3 System based of primary frequency control [4]

Primary Secondary Inductor LP, capacitor CP and switching capacitors CV1

resonant tank resonant tank
and CV2 form the resonant tank. The main switches S1 and
Push-pull S2 are switched on and off alternatively for half of each
Cp Lp Ls Cs Biomedical
resonant load
resonant period and changing the duty cycle of the detuning
switch SV1 and SV2 varies the effective capacitances of CV1
Magnetic V dc
Frequency and CV2 by changing the average charging or discharging
coupling
controller Internal period. This in turn will vary the operating frequency of the
V ref Skin transceiver primary converter. Each CV1 and CV2 is involved in the
Digital analogue resonance for half of each resonant period. The variation in
converter reference voltage (Vref) obtained from the DAC is used to
RF Communication vary the switching period of these capacitors. This method
channel of frequency control maintains the zero voltage switching
External
transceiver condition of the converter while managing the operating
frequency. This helps to minimize the high frequency har-
monics and power losses in the system. As shown in figure
Fig. 2 System architecture
3 the pickup circuitry is tuned to a fixed frequency using the
constant parameters LS and CS. The operating frequency of
Two nRF24E1 Nordic transceivers are used for data the overall system is dependent on the primary resonant
communication. The DC output voltage of the pickup is tank which can be varied by changing the equivalent reso-
detected and transmitted to the external transceiver. The nant capacitance [6], therefore the tuning condition of the
external transceiver processes the data and adjusts the duty power pickup can be controlled.
cycle of the output PWM signal in order to vary the refer-
ence voltage (Vref) of the frequency control circuitry. The

_________________________________________ ___________________________________________
IFMBE Proceedings Vol. 23
Transcutaneous Energy Transfer System for Powering Implantable Biomedical Devices
III. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
A prototype TET system was built and tested in a sheep.
The internal coil and the resonant capacitor were Parylene
coated and encapsulated with medical grade silicon to pro-
vide a biocompatible cover. The total weight of the im-
planted equipment was less than 100g. As illustrated by the
cross sectional view in figure 4, thermistors were attached
to the primary and the secondary coils to measure the tem-
perature rise caused by the system in the surrounding tissue.
x Thermistor 1: Placed on top of primary
x Thermistor 2: Placed under the skin
x Thermistor 3: Placed on the muscle side
x Thermistor 4: 1cm from the secondary coil
x Thermistor 5: 2cm from the secondary coil
x Thermistor 6: Near the subcutaneous tissue near the
exit of the wound.
Prior to experimentation, the thermistors were calibrated
against a high precision FLUKE 16 Multimeter temperature
sensor and a precision infrared thermometer.
Primary coil
1 vide sufficient compensation, and delivered power will drop
Subcutaneous tissue
6 2
4 5
1cm
3
2cm
Secondary coil Healthy tissue
Fig. 4 The placement of the temperature sensors
Prior to the surgery all implantable components were
sterilized using methanol gas. The sheep was put under
isoflurane anesthesia and the right dorsal chest of the sheep
was shaved. Iodine and disinfectant was applied over the
skin to sterilize the area of surgery. Using aseptic tech-
niques a 5 cm incision was made through the skin on the
dorsal chest. A tunnel was created under the skin approxi-
mately 20 cm long and a terminal pocket created. The sec-
ondary coil and the thermistors were placed within this
pocket. The thickness of the skin at this site was approxi-
mately 10mm. The secondary coil was then sutured in place
and the power lead from the coil and leads of the thermis-
tors were tunneled back to the incision site and exteriorised
through the wound. The wound was stitched and Marcain
was injected to the area of the wound. Iconic powder was
_________________________________________
IFMBE Proceedings Vol. 23
237
also put on the site of the wound to reduce infection. Fol-
lowing the surgery the sheep transferred to a crate where it
was kept over a three week period. The primary coil was
placed directly above the secondary coil and held on the
sheep using three loosely tied strings. A PowerLab ML820
data acquisition unit and Labchart software (ADInstru-
ments, Sydney Australia) was used for continuous monitor-
ing of the temperature, the output power to the load and the
variation in input current of the system during power regu-
lation. The data acquisition was carried out at a frequency
of 10 samples per second.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Experimental results were obtained for delivering 10W
of power to the load when the system was implanted in
sheep. Figure 5 illustrates the closed loop controlled power
delivered to the load over a period of 24 hours. The input
voltage to the system was 23.5V. The controller is able to
control the power to the load for axially aligned separations
and lateral displacements between 10mm to 20mm. Beyond
this range the coupling is too low for the controller to pro-
below the 10W set point. Evidence of inadequate coupling
can be seen at intervals in Figure 5.Variation in input cur-
rent reflects the controller working to compensate for
changes in coupling using frequency variation between 163
kHz (fully detuned) and 173 kHz (fully tuned). When the
coupling between the coils is good, the primary resonant
tank is fully detuned in order to reduce the power trans-
ferred to the secondary. When the coils are experiencing
poor coupling, the primary resonant tank is fully tuned to
increase the power transfer between the coils.
Graph of closed loop control power at 10 W
12.0 0.8
10.0
0.75
Input current (A)
8.0
Power (W)
6.0 0.7
4.0
0.65
2.0 Outp ut Vo lt ag e
inp ut current
0.0 0.6
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Time (mins)
Fig. 5 Regulated power to the load and the input current to the system
Figure 6 shows the temperature recorded from the six
thermistors. It takes approximately 20 minutes for the tem-
___________________________________________
238 T. Dissanayake, D. Budgett, A.P. Hu, S. Malpas and L. Bennet

perature to reach a steady state after turn-on. The maximum R

temperature was observed in the thermistor placed under the Q (1)
secondary coil on the muscle side. The maximum tempera- ZL
ture observed in this thermistor over the 24 hour period was Where R is the load resistance,  (2\f) is the system an-
38.10C. The maximum temperature rise observed was 3.80C gular operating frequency, and L is the secondary coil in-
in the thermistor placed under the skin. The large variation ductance. A larger Q will enable the system to be more
in the primary coil temperature is due to the changes in tolerant. This benefit is traded off against the need for a
current through the coil from the frequency control mecha- more sensitive and faster feedback response from the con-
nism. When the system is in the fully tuned condition, the trol system.
current in the primary coil is at a maximum to compensate
for the poor coupling. The temperature rise in the thermis-
tors 1cm and 2cm from the secondary coil is well below VI. CONCLUSIONS
20C.
We have successfully implemented a system that is capa-
ble of continuously delivering power to a load in a sheep.
Temperature against time when delivering 10W
The results have been presented for delivering 10W of
power to the load with closed loop frequency control tech-
40.0 nique for a period of 24 hours. The external coil was loosely
38.0
secured to lie over the region of the internal coil and sub-
36.0
jected to alignment variations from a non-compliant subject.
Temperature (Celcius)

34.0
32.0
The maximum temperature observed in this system is
30.0
38.10C on the thermistor placed on the muscle side under
28.0
the primary coil. The maximum temperature rise was 3.80C
26.0 on the thermistor placed under the skin.
24.0
22.0
20.0 REFERENCES
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Time (mins) 1. Carmelo A. Milano, A.J.L., Laura J. Blue, Peter K. Smith, Adrian F.
unde r s kin m us c le s ide 2 c m fro m s e c
Hernadez, Paul B. Rosenberg, and Joseph G. Rogers, Implantable Left
ne a r wo und e xit prim a ry s urfa c e 1 c m fro m s e c Ventricular Assist Devices: New Hope for Patients with End stage
Heart Faliure. North Carolina medical journal, 2006. 67(2): p. 110-
115.
Fig. 6 Temperature profile of the thermistors
2. C. C. Tsai, B.S.C.a.C.M.T. Design of Wireless Transcutaneous En-
ergy Transmission System for Totally Artificial Hearts. in IEEE
APPCAS. 2000. Tianjin, China.
V. DISCUSSION 3. Guoxing Wang, W.L., Rizwan Bashirullah, Mohanasankar Sivapraka-
sam, Gurhan A. Kendir, Ying Ji, Mark S. Humayun and James
D.Weiland. A closed loop transcutaneous power transfer system for
Although the system performs well at delivering 10W implantable devices with enhanced stability. in IEEE circuits and sys-
over a 24 hour period, there are short intervals when this tems. 2004.
power level was not delivered. These intervals correspond 4. Ping Si, P.A.H., J. W. Hsu, M. Chiang, Y. Wang, Simon Malpas,
to times when the coupling is too low for the controller to David Budgett Wireless power supply for implantable biomedical de-
vice based on primary input voltage reglation. 2nd IEEE conference
compensate. A variety of approaches can be taken to solve on Industrial Electronics and Applications, 2007.
this problem. The first is to tighten the coupling limitations 5. Ping Si, A.P.H., Designing the DC inductance for ICPT Power pick-
to prevent coupling deteriorating to beyond the equivalent ups. 2005.
limit of 20mm of axial separation. The second approach is 6. Ping Si, A.P.H., Simon Malpas, David Budgett, A frequency control
method for regulating wireless power to implantable devices. IEEE
to allow occasional power drops on the basis that an internal ICIEA conference, Harbin, China, 2007.
battery could cover these intervals, (patient alarms would
activate if the problem persists). The third approach is to
increase the controller tolerance to low coupling. The ability Author: Thushari Dissanayake
Institute: Auckland Bioengineering Institute
to tolerate misalignments of the frequency controlled sys- Street: 70, Symonds Street
tem is mainly determined by the systems quality factor (Q City: Auckland
value), which is defined by: Country: New Zealand
Email: t.dissanayake@auckland.ac.nz

_________________________________________ ___________________________________________
IFMBE Proceedings Vol. 23
Transcutaneous Energy Transfer System for Powering Implantable Biomedical Devices 239

Author: David Bugett Author: Patrick Hu

Institute: Auckland Bioengineering Institute Institute: University of Auckland
Street: 70, Symonds Street Street: 38, Princess Street
City: Auckland City: Auckland
Country: New Zealand Country: New Zealand
Email: d.budgett@auckland.ac.nz Email: a.hu@auckland.ac.nz

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IFMBE Proceedings Vol. 23

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