In vivo RF powering for advanced biological research

An optimized remote powering architecture with a miniature and implantable RF power converter for an untethered small laboratory animal inside a cage is proposed. The proposed implantable device exhibits dimensions less than 6 mmx6 mmx1 mm, and a mass of 100 mg including a medical-grade silicon coating. The external system consists of a Class-E power amplifier driving a tuned 15 cmx25 cm external coil placed underneath the cage. The implant device is located in the animal's abdomen in a plane parallel to the external coil and utilizes inductive coupling to receive power from the external system. A half-wave rectifier rectifies the received AC voltage and passes the resulting DC current to a 2.5 kOmega resistor, which represents the loading of an implantable microsystem. An optimal operating point with respect to operating frequency and number of turns in each coil inductor was determined by analyzing the system efficiency. The determined optimal operating condition is based on a 4-turn external coil and a 20-turn internal coil operating at 4 MHz. With the Class-E amplifier consuming a constant power of 25 W, this operating condition is sufficient to supply a desired 3.2 V with 1.3 mA to the load over a cage size of 10 cmx20 cm with an animal tilting angle of up to 60 degrees, which is the worst case considered for the prototype design. A voltage regulator can be designed to regulate the received DC power to a stable supply for the bio-implant microsystem.