2016 Volume 24 Issue 3 Pages 131-136
Implanted batteries and transcutaneous drive lines are used for powering active implantable medical devices (AIMDs) such as pacemakers and nerve stimulators. However, those devices cause physical burdens to patients due to surgery of the battery replacement and infections through the drive lines. Hence, we have proposed an implantable energy harvesting system (IEHS) using the contraction energy of electrically stimulated muscles. Previously, we fabricated an electromagnetic induction generator for the IEHS. However, the generator is large and complex because of the requirement of speed increaser. Therefore, in order to realize a smaller and simpler generator for the IEHS, we focused on electrostatic induction generators without any speed increaser using electret which may generate electricity at lower rotational speeds. Firstly, we evaluated electric charge on the electret sheets measuring the surface potential. Secondary, we measured output power of the electrostatic induction generator having several combinations of gaps and the number of poles of the electret sheets. Finally, the output power was compared with that of the electromagnetic induction generator.
