Feasibility Study of an Implantable Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Utilizing Human Mandibular Deformation to Power an Implantable Biosystem

摘要

As in-vivo sensor technology has gained attraction for real time human body health monitoring and treatment, maintaining a sustainable power source has become an important issue. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is the process of providing electrical impulses to various areas of the brain in order to treat the symptoms of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and dystonia. Due to limitation of batteries, DBS requires routine recharges and unwanted surgeries to replace the battery. In recent years, there have been several studies to utilize wasted energy from human body to provide power to an implantable medical device. While the research has been performed on the in-vivo energy harvesting capabilities of the human body to power a pacemaker using heart beat or blood flow, very little exists regarding powering a DBS device implanted in the upper chest.;This thesis studies the feasibility of energy harvesting from this deformation via a piezoelectric energy harvesting device. A finite element (FE) model of the human mandible is developed and verified by comparing its deformation response to the previous researches. A piezoelectric energy harvesting device to be fixed onto the mandible is designed and integrated with the mandible. A novel mandibular loading apparatus that imitates the forces exerted on a mandible during mastication is designed. The results of this study will offer significant insight into the energy harvesting capabilities of the human mandible and the challenges that accompany the utilization of this energy to provide power to a DBS system.