A LOW TEMPERATURE INCREASE TRANSCUTANEOUS BATTERY CHARGER FOR IMPLANTABLE MEDICAL DEVICES

Abstract

Many medical groups have used wireless battery charging technology for rechargeable batteries used in implantable devices. During charging, battery heat is lost from the battery and other heat sources within an implantable device, which may be harmful to patients’ tissues. Therefore, charging batteries with minimum discomfort to patients while replenishing battery capacity as much as possible is a challenge. In this paper, a constant voltage with a different limiting current strategy for a lithium-ion polymer battery is proposed, thereby modulating the limiting current rate that reduces battery temperature increase. Experiments show that better safety charging performance for 260, 600, and 1000[Formula: see text]mAh lithium-ion polymer batteries can be obtained by the proposed current-limiting method. Compared with conventional constant-current–constant-voltage charging strategies, the maximum battery temperature increase is improved.