Authors
Patrick P Mercier, Andrew C Lysaght, Saurav Bandyopadhyay, Anantha P Chandrakasan, Konstantina M Stankovic
Publication date
2012/12
Journal
Nature biotechnology
Volume
30
Issue
12
Pages
1240-1243
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Description
Endocochlear potential (EP) is a battery-like electrochemical gradient found in and actively maintained by the inner ear 1, 2. Here we demonstrate that the mammalian EP can be used as a power source for electronic devices. We achieved this by designing an anatomically sized, ultra-low quiescent-power energy harvester chip integrated with a wireless sensor capable of monitoring the EP itself. Although other forms of in vivo energy harvesting have been described in lower organisms 3, 4, 5, and thermoelectric 6, piezoelectric 7 and biofuel 8, 9 devices are promising for mammalian applications, there have been few, if any, in vivo demonstrations in the vicinity of the ear, eye and brain. In this work, the chip extracted a minimum of 1.12 nW from the EP of a guinea pig for up to 5 h, enabling a 2.4 GHz radio to transmit measurement of the EP every 40–360 s. With future optimization of electrode design, we envision …
Total citations
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Scholar articles
PP Mercier, AC Lysaght, S Bandyopadhyay… - Nature biotechnology, 2012