Energy Harvesting for Powering Biomedical Devices

Energy harvesting techniques have been proved commercially for powering electronic devices, as shown by thermoelectric, piezoelectric, electrostatic or electromagnetic approaches, among others. The human body itself can be an alternative power source for energizing miniature electronic devices. Biomedical applications can embrace the use of these new technologies by extending the battery lifetime of actual devices, or even requiring no batteries for some endeavors. New applications such as constant patient monitoring, wireless body sensor networks, or continuous therapies that are actually bounded by batteries or power cords can benefit from this approach. This paper reviews the capabilities and future trends of energy harvesting techniques for powering portable medical devices including thermal energy, kinetic energy, and glucose fuels. Several transduction techniques (piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and electrostatic) are evaluated as well.