Cardiac Pacemaker

Overview

In order to begin biomaterials testing, GrindDC needs a realistic implant test platform. The implantable cardiac pacemaker was chosen as the first project because it is:

• easily implemented
• cheap to produce
• small
• can easily utilize inductive power

Status

Implant is early in the design phase.

Inductive Power

Inductive power is a core feature that will be implemented in all future designs for primary power or recharging of implanted power supply.

The pacemaker test platform should implement:

• inductive power recharge (with battery)
• inductive power only operation (without battery)
• easily replaced inductors

Small Size / Cheaply Manufactured

To accomplish the biomaterials testing goals the pacemaker reference implant will need to be small in area to facilitate cheap production of the printed circuit boards. Additionally, the required parts should be minimized in number and cost.

Effective at pacing simulated heart

Using a simulated cardiac cell model, the pacer should regulate the circuit when Artrial-Ventricular block is simulated. The chosen cardiac model is described in Synchronization with low power consumption of hardware models of cardiac cells (Maeda, Yagi, Makino; 2005[1]).