School of Mechanical Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), 61005 Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
Research Institute for Solar and Sustainable Energies, GIST, 61005 Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jul 21;117(29):16856-16863. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2002201117. Epub 2020 Jul 6.
Recent advances in soft materials and mechanics activate development of many new types of electrical medical implants. Electronic implants that provide exceptional functions, however, usually require more electrical power, resulting in shorter period of usages although many approaches have been suggested to harvest electrical power in human bodies by resolving the issues related to power density, biocompatibility, tissue damage, and others. Here, we report an active photonic power transfer approach at the level of a full system to secure sustainable electrical power in human bodies. The active photonic power transfer system consists of a pair of the skin-attachable photon source patch and the photovoltaic device array integrated in a flexible medical implant. The skin-attachable patch actively emits photons that can penetrate through live tissues to be captured by the photovoltaic devices in a medical implant. The wireless power transfer system is very simple, e.g., active power transfer in direct current (DC) to DC without extra circuits, and can be used for implantable medical electronics regardless of weather, covering by clothes, in indoor or outdoor at day and night. We demonstrate feasibility of the approach by presenting thermal and mechanical compatibility with soft live tissues while generating enough electrical power in live bodies through animal experiments. We expect that the results enable long-term use of currently available implants in addition to accelerating emerging types of electrical implants that require higher power to provide diverse convenient diagnostic and therapeutic functions in human bodies.
软物质和力学的最新进展激活了许多新型电医学植入物的发展。然而，提供卓越功能的电子植入物通常需要更多的电力，尽管已经提出了许多方法来通过解决与功率密度、生物相容性、组织损伤等相关的问题来从人体中获取电力，但这导致了它们的使用时间缩短。在这里，我们报告了一种在全系统水平上的主动光子功率传输方法，以确保人体中的可持续电力供应。主动光子功率传输系统由一对可贴附在皮肤上的光子源贴片和集成在柔性医疗植入物中的光伏器件阵列组成。可贴附在皮肤上的贴片主动发射光子，这些光子可以穿透活组织，被医疗植入物中的光伏器件捕获。无线功率传输系统非常简单，例如，无需额外电路即可在直流（DC）到 DC 之间进行主动功率传输，并且可以用于植入式医疗电子产品，无论天气如何、是否被衣物覆盖、在室内或室外、白天或晚上。我们通过在活体中产生足够的电力来演示与软活体组织的热和机械兼容性的可行性，同时进行了动物实验。我们期望这些结果能够使目前可用的植入物能够长期使用，并且还能够加速新兴类型的电子植入物的发展，这些植入物需要更高的功率来提供人体中多样化的便捷诊断和治疗功能。
