Monday, December 04, 2006

US Patent 7142075 - MEMS Power Generator

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7142075.pdf

Batteries for implantable medical devices eventually need to be replaced at high expense and inconvenience. This patent from Sandia proposes a way to avoid batteries in implantable medical devices by using a mechanism to transform internally generated mechanical energy to electrical energy via a magnetic micromechanical device. Claim 1 reads:

1. A microelectromechanical (MEM) apparatus, comprising: (a) a meandering electrical pickup disposed on a substrate; and (b) a plurality of permanent magnets spaced apart side-by-side and suspended above the substrate by a soft-magnetic shuttle, with the plurality of permanent magnets generating an electrical voltage across the meandering electrical pickup in response to a movement of the plurality of permanent magnets in a direction substantially parallel to a surface of the substrate.