Sorin Crm Sas

Cairdac

Alaa Makdissi

An Nguyen-Dinh

Willy Regnier

Julien Dohin

Ashutosh Ghildiyal

Karima Amara

Thien Hoang

Steeven Vassal

Martin Deterre

Guillaume Ferin

An energy harvesting module includes a pendular unit with piezoelectric transducer elastically deformable in bending between a clamped end and a free end coupled to an inertial mass. The piezoelectric transducer includes two coplanar piezoelectric beams arranged side-by-side on either side of a central axis of the transducer, each of the piezoelectric beams including adjacent external and internal arms, arranged side-by-side and formed single-piece. The external arm of each beam has a clamped proximal end and a free distal end, and the internal arm of each beam has a free proximal end supporting the inertial mass, and a free distal end connected to the distal end of the adjacent external arm by a common junction.

Energy harvesting module with dual-cantilever piezoelectric transducer, in particular for powering a leadless autonomous cardiac capsule

An energy harvesting module includes a pendular unit with piezoelectric transducer elastically deformable in bending with a clamped end and a free end coupled to an inertial mass. The transducer includes at least one piezoelectric beam configured into two adjacent arms formed single-piece, with external and internal arms arranged side-by-side. The external arm has a clamped proximal end and a free distal end, and the internal arm has a free proximal end supporting the inertial mass, and a free distal end connected to the distal end of the adjacent external arm. An annular mount surrounds the beam at its proximal end and includes the clamp to which is fastened the proximal end of the external arm. The mount includes, in a central region in the vicinity of the clamp, a cavity inside which the inertial mass carried by the free proximal end of the internal arm can oscillate.

Energy harvesting module with compact-construction piezoelectric transducer, in particular for powering a leadless autonomous cardiaccapsule

The instrument includes a dual-wall deformable tube, with an inner sleeve, a coaxial outer sleeve, and an imaging module connected to the inner and outer sleeves. An array of transducers is carried by an outer face of the imaging module. The inner sleeve and the outer sleeve are mobile in relative axial translation between: a folded position in which the inner and outer sleeves both have a cylindrical shape, and in which the imaging module substantially extends in the continuation of the inner sleeve; and an expanded position, in which the inner sleeve has a cylindrical shape and the outer sleeve has a flared shape widening on the distal side and in which the imaging module substantially extends with the face that carries the transducers of the array turned in axial direction towards the front of the deformable tube.

Catheter with built-in ultrasound imaging sensors

The implant comprises a tubular body housing an energy harvesting module adapted to convert external stresses applied to the implant into electrical energy, and a rechargeable battery adapted to be charged by the energy harvesting module. During the storage, an external source physically separated from the implant is coupled to the implant rechargeable battery to maintain a minimum battery charge level. An interface circuit of the implant couples surface electrodes to the battery, with switching between: i) a transport and storage configuration where the electrodes are connected to the external source to receive from the latter a battery charging energy and/or to exchange communication signals with the outside through the wire link of the coupling; and ii) a functional configuration in which the surface electrodes are decoupled from the external source after the implant has been implanted. The implant further comprises a data transmitter circuit adapted, in the transport and storage configuration, to send communication signals, via the surface electrodes, on the link coupling to the external source, and/or a data receiver circuit adapted, in the transport and storage configuration, to receive, via the surface electrodes, communication signals transmitted on the link coupling to the external source.

Autonomous cardiac implant of the leadless capsule type, comprising an interface for external communication during transportation and storage

The implant comprises a tubular body housing an energy harvesting module adapted to convert external stresses applied to the implant into electrical energy, and a rechargeable battery adapted to be charged by the energy harvesting module. During the storage, an external source physically separated from the implant is coupled to the implant rechargeable battery to maintain a minimum battery charge level. An interface circuit of the implant couples surface electrodes to the battery, with switching between: i) a transport and storage configuration where the electrodes are connected to the external source to receive from the latter a battery charging energy and/or to exchange communication signals with the outside through the wire link of the coupling; and ii) a functional configuration in which the surface electrodes are decoupled from the external source after the implant has been implanted. At least one of the implant surface electrodes is an auxiliary electrode that is not a cardiac potential detection/pacing electrode. In the transport and storage configuration, the interface circuit couple the auxiliary electrode to the implant rechargeable battery, and in the functional configuration, the interface circuit decouples the auxiliary electrode from the implant rechargeable battery and put the auxiliary electrode to a floating potential.

Autonomous cardiac implant of the leadless capsule type, comprising an auxiliary electrode for charging the battery by means of an external source during transportation and storage

This module comprises: a circuit for interfacing with the piezoelectric beam of an oscillating pendular unit, outputting a rectified signal comprising a sequence of pulses at a frequency equal to a multiple of the oscillation frequency of the pendular unit; a buffer capacitor charged by the successive pulses outputted by the interface circuit; and a converter regulator adapted to convert a capacitor discharge current into a stabilized power supply voltage, and controlled by a feedback control stage of the Maximum Power-Point Tracking (MPPT) type. A comparator detects the conduction of a blocking diode interposed between the interface circuit and the capacitor, in order to produce a signal representative of the current value of the duty cycle of the detected conduction and non-conduction periods. This signal is compared with a predetermined optimum duty cycle value in order to enable or disable the coupling of the capacitor to the converter regulator so as to control either the capacitor discharge towards an input of the converter regulator, or the continuation of its charging.

Optimized piezoelectric transducer-based energy harvesting module, in particular for charging the battery of an implantable medical device such as a leadless autonomous cardiac capsule

The module comprises a pendular unit with an elastically deformable piezoelectric beam having a clamped end and an opposite, free end, coupled to an inertial mass. The beam produces an oscillating electrical signal collected by electrodes, which is rectified and regulated to output a voltage for charging a battery. The number and configuration of the electrodes (T, T, B, B, N) carried by the piezoelectric beam define a plurality of pairs of electrodes between which a corresponding plurality of said oscillating signals can be simultaneously collected. A switching matrix, as a function of an input command, selectively switches the plurality of pairs of electrodes between each other according to a plurality of different series (S), parallel (P) and/or series-parallel (SP) configurations, the selected configuration being that which maximizes the power sent to the battery as a function of the voltage level (VBAT) present at the terminals of the latter.

Piezoelectric transducer-based energy harvesting module, in particular for optimized charging of the battery of an implantable medical device such as a leadless autonomous cardiac capsule

The energy harvesting module is provided with a pendular unit comprising an inertial mass coupled to an elastic piezoelectric beam providing a power voltage. An acceleration sensor provides a signal representative of the instantaneous acceleration of the beam in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the beam, and an angular speed sensor provides a signal representative of the instantaneous angular speed of rotation of the beam about an axis perpendicular to a plane of bending of the beam. Based on the voltage, acceleration and angular speed values, a beam integrity monitoring circuit estimates parameters of a mechanical-electrical transfer function and derives therefrom metrics representative of physical and electrical parameters of the pendular unit and of the material of the beam. This makes it possible to evaluate the proper operation of the energy harvester and to detect a potential performance decrease liable to lead to a failure in the more or less short term.

Piezoelectric energy harvester including a monitoring circuit for detecting harvester alteration or downgrading

An autonomous implantable capsule comprises a capsule body provided with an element for its anchoring to a patient's organ. An electronic unit is powered by an energy harvesting module provided with a pendular unit comprising an inertial mass coupled to an elastic piezoelectric beam forming a mechanical-electrical transducer for converting into electrical energy the oscillations of the beam. A mobile support, integral with the clamped end of the beam and mobile in axial rotation about the axis of the capsule body, can be directed by a controllable driver to adjust the angular position of the support so as to maximize the produced electrical power converted by the mechanical-electrical transducer.

Leadless autonomous cardiac capsule with rotatably-mounted piezoelectric energy harvester

A receiver module of an autonomous implanted capsule receives a human body communication, HBC, signal sensed by an electrode in contact with body tissues or fluids of a patient. The signal is a pulse-modulated, baseband PPM pulse signal. The receiver module comprises a non-linear LNA amplifier stage comprising a pair of complementary transistors arranged as a voltage inverter circuit with an input coupled to the modulated-input-signal collecting electrode. The amplifier stage input is polarized to an intermediate operating point voltage between a supply voltage of the complementary transistor pair and a ground voltage. The amplifier stage has a gain of at least 40 dB, a gain-bandwidth product of at least 20 MHz, and a consumption lower than or equal to 100 nW. It is followed by a downstream demodulator stage made up of a fast comparator circuit of the Threshold Inverter Quantization, TIQ, type, comprising two inverters with cascade-coupled complementary transistors, one of the inverters operating as a voltage reference and the other inverter operating as a gain booster.

Ultra-low power receiver module for wireless communication by an implantable medical device

The disclosure relates to a device including a circuit for adjusting the energy of the stimulation pulses, independently controlling the pulse width and the voltage of each stimulation pulse. An iterative search algorithm for determining the optimum energy includes changing both the pulse width and voltage at each new pulse delivered, by setting a high energy value and a low energy value, and delivering a stimulation pulse with the low energy value. A capture test is then carried out. In the presence of a capture, a current iteration is complete and a new iteration is done with the current low energy as a new high energy value. In the absence of capture, the algorithm is terminated with selection of the last energy value that produced the capture as the value of optimum energy.

Active implantable medical device with dynamic optimization of stimulation pulse energy

The device includes an energy harvesting module with a pendular unit formed of an elastically deformable piezoelectric beam associated with an inertial mass. A multifunction part includes an axial through-recess with inner bearing surfaces opposite respective outer faces of the beam. These bearing surfaces having an increasing transverse spacing, such as, during an oscillation cycle, the beam comes into contact with one of the bearing surfaces, hence reducing the free length of the beam as the bending of the latter goes along. The multifunction part also allows rationalizing the manufacturing and the assembly of the capsule, with high-level integration of the inner components of the implant.

Autonomous cardiac implant of the leadless capsule type, including a piezoelectric beam energy harvester

An RF telemetry receiver circuit for active implantable medical devices. The baseband binary signal (D) is doubly modulated by a low frequency carrier (F) and by a high frequency carrier (F). The receiver circuit is a semi-passive non heterodyne circuit, devoid of a local oscillator and mixer. It comprises an antenna (), a passive bandpass filter () centered on the high-frequency carrier (F), a passive envelope detector (-) and a digital demodulator (). The envelope detector comprises a first diode circuit () of non-coherent detection, an active bandpass filter () centered on a frequency (2.F) twice the low frequency carrier and having a bandwidth (2.D) twice the baseband bandwidth, and a second diode circuit () of non-coherent detection, outputting a baseband signal applied to the digital demodulation stage ().

RF telemetry receiver circuit for active medical implants

The invention relates to a device incorporating an endocardial acceleration (EA) sensor. A capture test circuit of the device collects a sampled EA signal and extracts a limited series of EA measurements during a duration of a predetermined temporal window opened after delivery of a pacing pulse. An indicator value based on an average of absolute values of successive EA measurements of the series of EA measurements is calculated at an end of the temporal window. The indicator value is compared to a predetermined discrimination threshold to determine the presence or absence of a capture according to whether the indicator value lies above or below the predetermined discrimination threshold. The indicator value is very robust to noise and particularly efficient in terms of computing, which reduces, in large proportions, consumption of the digital processor and thus of the capsule.

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Paris, France

Alaa Makdissi