Title: Design of biocompatible energy harvesting device for low frequency operation

Abstract

The aim of the present disclosure is to design a hybrid Aluminium Nitride (AlN)/polymer and AlN-polymer nanocomposites based flexible and biocompatible energy harvesting device operating at low frequencies and low ‘g’ (preferably <1) along with achieving biocompatible low power requirements for biomedical applications. Recent advancements in MEMS technology have led to the development of different applications in the area of biomedical implants as well. With the advent of MEMS technology, these devices have become smaller, portable, cheaper, robust, and require low power consumption. Among these developments, specifically, the pacemaker devices need more attention from a healthcare point of view where size reduction approaches have been utilized to reduce the power consumption to a few microwatts. These applications draw their power from the batteries. So, the battery of the device is to be replaced after every 5-7 years by a surgical operation which can be exacted, costly, and a risky process. Moreover, surgical replacement may not be successful every time. Therefore, there is a need to use alternate wireless energy harvesting approaches by means of tapping energy from the ambient vibrations using piezoelectric transduction that can recharge the battery of the implant and can work for more years. Piezoelectric transduction is preferred because of the higher energy density. Among the piezoelectric materials available, AlN, Zinc Oxide (ZnO), and Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) are biocompatible. Among these, AlN is the best choice because of its CMOS compatibility and due to its higher figure of merit (FoM). So, the proposed research work will focus on designing the parts of an energy harvester device for low g (< 1) and low frequency using AlN/polymer hybrid and AlN-polymer composite as an active material.