Design of an implantable power supply for an intraocular sensor, using POWER (power optimization for wireless energy requirements)

The reduction in size and power usage of MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) devices has enabled development of fully implantable medical devices [K.D. Wise, IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Magaz. 24(5) (2005) 22-29], though major obstacles remain in developing devices of very small scale (<1 mm) [T. Simunic, L. Benini, G. De Micheli, IEEE Trans. Very Large Scale Integr. (VLSI) Syst. 9 (2001) 15-28]. One of the most challenging applications; an intraocular sensor (IOS) developed by the Wireless Integrated Micro-Systems-Engineering Research Center (WIMS-ERC) at The University of Michigan; is the subject of the present study. Our specific objectives are fourfold: (1) to model the power usage of an intraocular sensor (IOS); (2) to develop a methodology for optimization of Hybrid Implantable Power Systems (HIPS); (3) to apply the selection tool to identify candidate power systems; and (4) to establish a methodology to fabricate and test the performance of an optimized power supply. In the present study we fabricated and tested three different cells. For one of these, 10 complete discharge and recharge cycles were successfully obtained. The experimental capacity was 7.70 mAh (15% of theoretical) for a discharge rate of C/5. As part of future work, a microbattery will be built for the WIMS-ERC IOS and tested in a fully integrated testbed.