In a paper published in Applied Physics Letters, Stanford University researchers demonstrated the feasibility of transferring power wirelessly to a tiny cardiac device implanted five centimeters inside the chest on the surface of the heart—a depth once considered unreachable for wireless power transmission. The device is contained in a cube measuring 0.8 mm per side and receives power from radio waves transmitted by a small power unit on the surface of the body.
The team of developers was led by Ada Poon, who was recognized last year for demonstrating a wirelessly powered, self-propelled device capable of swimming through the bloodstream. The wireless cardiac implant works using a combination of inductive and radiative power transmissions to send high-frequency radio waves to a coil of wire inside the body, where an electrical current strong enough to operate the small device is produced.
The development team believes that in addition to wireless cardiac devices, other medical devices such as swallowable endoscopes, permanent pacemakers and precision brain stimulators can also be developed using the same technology.
