A Deeply Implantable Conformal Antenna for Leadless Pacing Applications

摘要

Finite battery life and complications caused by leads of conventional pacemakers are key issues in pacemaker technology. In this paper, we propose a deeply implantable antenna which can be conformed on a commercially available leadless pacemaker and has the potential capability of receiving and harvesting radio frequency (RF) energy to achieve cardiac pacing. More specifically, a deeply implantable conformal antenna at 2.45 GHz has been designed in ANSYS HFSS and then manufactured and integrated with a 3D printed mock pacemaker. The antenna performance was measured in tissue simulating liquid (TSL) and good agreement was achieved with the simulation results. Moreover, it was concluded that the proposed conformal antenna design on a commercially available pacemaker has the potential to be integrated with a rectifier for leadless pacing.