Abstract

In Biomedical Engineering, inductive wireless power transfer (IWPT) has been investigated by many researchers to charge active implantable medical devices (AIMDs) since IWPT is safe and avoids the implementation of cables, preventing infections through the skin and movement limitations. This research develops a high coverage inductive interface to build a cage that works as a tool to acquire and study the neuronal activity in small animals. The coverage is constituted by big transmitter coils in order to charge homogeneously implants in free-moving small animals, where the receiver coil is fully implanted. Different approaches, as the implementation of bigger coils, segmentation technique, multicoil array were combined to maximize the covered area and optimize the power distribution homogeneity as well as the power transfer efficiency. In this study, it was found that segmentation technique significantly mitigates the power losses. Another important finding was that larger distances between transmitter and receiver coils decreased the misalignment sensitivity. This is essential for the free movement of small animals.