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An ultrasonically controlled switching system for power management in implantable devices

Biomedical Microdevices volume 20, Article number: 42 (2018) Cite this article

Abstract

In this paper, we present an ultrasonically controlled switching system that can save the battery power for implantable devices by turning the system on and off, on-demand. Ultrasonic control is employed to reduce the device size, increase the penetration depth, and reduce misalignment sensitivity associated with alternative techniques using permanent magnet and RF signal. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, a 665 kHz ultrasonic signal is used to activate a piezoelectric receiver which in turn switches a battery-powered RF system on-and-off. In-vitro tests show a reliable switching functionality at distances of up to 8 cm while consuming 43.5 nW (14.5 nA current consumption with 3 V power supply) when the system is in off-state, a factor of 10–100 times lower than the sleep-mode power consumption of typical RF SoC systems. The dimension of fabricated prototype is 6.3 × 16.7 × 2‍ mm3 allowing it to be easily incorporated into many existing implantable devices.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the staff of the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue University and Sayemul Islam at Temple University for their support of fabrication and experiment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, 1205 W. State St., West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Jiawei Zhou & Babak Ziaie

  2. Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, 1205 W. State St., West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Jiawei Zhou & Babak Ziaie

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Temple University, 1947 N. 12th St., Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Albert Kim

Authors
  1. Jiawei Zhou
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  2. Albert Kim
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  3. Babak Ziaie
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Correspondence to Babak Ziaie.

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Cite this article

Zhou, J., Kim, A. & Ziaie, B. An ultrasonically controlled switching system for power management in implantable devices. Biomed Microdevices 20, 42 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-018-0288-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-018-0288-2

Keywords

  • Piezoelectric
  • Ultrasonic control
  • Power management
  • Wireless
  • Implantable device