Numerical simulation of Wireless Power Transfer system to recharge the battery of an implanted cardiac pacemaker

This study deals with the design of an inductive Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) system to recharge the battery of a pacemaker. A co-simulation tool is developed using both circuit and electromagnetic field models to simulate all parts of a WPT system for a pacemaker. The pacemaker equipped with the secondary coil of the WPT system is assumed to be implanted in the human body, while the primary coil is placed on the body surface. The eddy currents induced on the titanium case of the pacemaker can alter the WPT performances and therefore the use of magnetic shield placed on the case surface is also proposed. Some numerical results are presented and validated by measurements in simple configurations.