Near-infrared light power/information transmission for implantable medical devices

Summary form only given. Power supply and information transmission are important issues in developing implantable medical devices. Power and information should be sent through wireless methods in order to prevent infection. Recently, a transcutaneous power supply technique using near-infrared light has been proposed. This technique is non-invasive and causes little electromagnetic disturbances for surrounding instruments. By applying this technique, we have developed two new devices: an implantable power supplier with a rechargeable battery and an implantable transmitter driven by laser irradiation. The implantable power supplier consists of an array of PIN photodiodes and a rechargeable battery. The implantable transmitter consists of a PIN photodiode array, a near-infrared light emitting diode, and a phase-modulation circuit.