Project Title

NeoPEH-LP: New configuration designs, manufacturing, and durable performance impact-inspired piezoelectric harvesting for powering leadless pacemakers 

Background

Intracardiac leadless Pacemakers (ICLPs) address many traditional pacemaker issues and have fewer infections. However, they face a major challenge with limited battery life, around 10 years, notably seen in devices like Nanostim and Micra. ICLPs cannot be retrieved after years. The technology's battery challenges remain unclear due to its novelty. The psychological fear of low battery levels and the non-removable nature of ICLPs restrict their use, particularly among young patients. 

Aim

This project aims at new configuration designs, novel piezoelectric fabrications, and durable in-vivo animal tests for piezoelectric energy harvesting in intracardiac leadless pacemakers. This project aims to generate electrical energy by piezoelectricity from the heart muscle kinetic motion with 8 µW power generation, a 50% volume reduction of our currently developed harvester, and long-term performance (over 25 years) approval. 

Design

This project creates new structures for piezoelectric cubes and find new methods for fabricating these structures. Finally, more tests and long-term tests will be carried out to prove the energy generation performance. 

Preliminary results

Our team has patented an idea for heart energy harvesting by piezoelectricity in 2021. The heart kinetic motion has been measured for designing energy harvesters. Three animal tests were conducted; the power output in the last animal surgery on a pig's heart was 4 times greater than the power required by Micra ICLP in <0.94 cm3 volume and <1 gr weight.