Cylindrical Electret Energy Harvester with Perforated Electrode for Intracardiac Pacemakers

This paper presents a cylindrical electret energy harvester for leadless intra-cardiac pacemakers. The energy is harvested from the ventricular blood pressure using a PDMS/Parylene electret tube on the outside of the cylindrical device. Compared with similar devices in the literature, the advantage of the proposed device is that the harvester and the pacing control electronics can be integrated into a single device. The diameter and length of the prototype device are 8 mm and 35 mm, respectively. Preliminary tests showed a maximum peak output power of 1.6 μW to a matched 55 GΩ load for 30 mmHg pressure variation at 1 Hz. The device design, fabrication, assembly and testing are presented.