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Edited by Joseph M. DeSimone, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, and approved December 16, 2013 (received for review September 12, 2013)
Significance
Heart rate monitors, pacemakers, cardioverter-defibrillators, and neural stimulators constitute broad classes of electronic implants that rely on battery power for operation. Means for harvesting power directly from natural processes of the body represent attractive alternatives for these and future types of biomedical devices. Here we demonstrate a complete, flexible, and integrated system that is capable of harvesting and storing energy from the natural contractile and relaxation motions of the heart, lung, and diaphragm at levels that meet requirements for practical applications. Systematic experimental evaluations in large animal models and quantitatively accurate computational models reveal the fundamental modes of operation and establish routes for further improvements.
Abstract
Here, we report advanced materials and devices that enable high-efficiency mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion from the natural contractile and relaxation motions of the heart, lung, and diaphragm, demonstrated in several different animal models, each of which has organs with sizes that approach human scales. A cointegrated collection of such energy-harvesting elements with rectifiers and microbatteries provides an entire flexible system, capable of viable integration with the beating heart via medical sutures and operation with efficiencies of ∼2%. Additional experiments, computational models, and results in multilayer configurations capture the key behaviors, illuminate essential design aspects, and offer sufficient power outputs for operation of pacemakers, with or without battery assist.
- biomedical implants
- flexible electronics
- transfer printing
- wearable electronics
- heterogeneous integration
Footnotes
↵1C.D., B.D.Y., and Y.S. contributed equally to this work.
- ↵2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jrogers{at}illinois.edu.
Author contributions: C.D., B.D.Y., P.L.T., M.J.S., and J.A.R. designed research; C.D., P.L.T., P.J., E.A., V.D., B.D., X.F., B.L., R.P., Z.K., M.J.S., and J.A.R. performed research; C.D., Y.S., J.X., V.D., B.D., R.P., Z.K., Y.H., M.J.S., and J.A.R. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; C.D., Y.S., P.L.T., P.J., Y.H., M.J.S., and J.A.R. analyzed data; and C.D., Y.S., P.L.T., R.G., Y.H., M.J.S., and J.A.R. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1317233111/-/DCSupplemental.
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