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Energy Harvesting from the Human Body and Powering up Implant Devices

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Book cover Nano Devices and Circuit Techniques for Low-Energy Applications and Energy Harvesting

Part of the book series: KAIST Research Series ((KAISTRS))

Abstract

This article reviews research activities at the system level on (i) energy harvesting with wearable devices from the human body and (ii) powering up implant devices. The first part reviews wearable devices to harvest energy from the human body for biomedical and portable devices. Harvestable human body energy sources can be classified into two categories, voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary sources are capable of providing high power levels, up to several watts, but are only available when the wearer is active. Involuntary sources are constantly available, but provide much smaller amounts of energy, of the order of milliwatts. The latter part of the article reviews research activities to power up devices implanted in the human body. There are two approaches to power up implant devices. The first approach is to harvest energy from the body or ambient sources. The energy sources are essentially limited to kinetic energy of the body, body heat, and solar. The second approach is to transmit power to implant devices wirelessly. The power level available to implanted devices through harvesting or power transmission is small, often of the order of microwatts.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Center for Integrated Smart Sensors funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning as the Global Frontier Project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Ross Kerley, Xiucheng Huang & Dong Sam Ha

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  1. Ross Kerley
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  2. Xiucheng Huang
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Correspondence to Dong Sam Ha .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical Engineering Center for Integrated Smart Sensors, KAIST, Daejoen, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

    Chong-Min Kyung

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Kerley, R., Huang, X., Ha, D.S. (2016). Energy Harvesting from the Human Body and Powering up Implant Devices. In: Kyung, CM. (eds) Nano Devices and Circuit Techniques for Low-Energy Applications and Energy Harvesting. KAIST Research Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9990-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9990-4_5

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