Powering pacemakers from heartbeat vibrations using linear and nonlinear energy harvesters

Linear and nonlinear piezoelectric devices are introduced to continuously recharge the batteries of the pacemakers by converting the vibrations from the heartbeats to electrical energy. The power requirement of a pacemaker is very low. However, after few years, patients require another surgical operation just to replace their pacemaker battery. Linear low frequency and nonlinear mono-stable and bi-stable energy harvesters are designed according to the especial signature of heart vibrations. The proposed energy harvesters are robust to variation of heart rate and can meet the power requirement of pacemakers. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3679102]