Transcutaneous Energy and Information Transmission System With Optimized Transformer Parameters for the Artificial Heart

The transcutaneous energy transmission system (TETS) through intact skin to power a totally artificial heart (TAH) has been designed and built. Due to large air gap, the coupling ability of transformer is low. This paper selects core material, geometrical parameters, and coils axial displacement to study their effects on coupling coefficient (k). By simulating with various values, transformer is optimized. To achieve better system requirements, two capacitors are added in series on both sides to compensate the leakage inductances, which results to the increase of efficiency from 48.7% to 91.7%. Furthermore, an information transmission system, in which through monitoring the temperature of secondary coil which reflects the value of load power, the change of temperature can adjust the input power of the primary coil to achieve high system reliability, is proposed.