Pacemaker Lead Coupling with an Automotive Wireless Power Transfer System

This paper deals with the assessment of the induced voltage in an unipolar pacing lead produced by the coil currents of a wireless power transfer (WPT) system for battery recharging of an electric vehicle (EV). In the first part of the work, the magnetic field distributions inside and outside an EV equipped with the WPT technology is carried out by finite element (FE) simulations using the artificial material single layer (AMSL) method. The FE-AMSL method efficiently predicts field reflection and the transmission of the EV conductive bodyshell, while avoiding the fine mesh discretization of the conductive regions and taking into account the skin effect. In the second part, the calculated magnetic field is used as an electromagnetic source of a unipolar pacing lead implanted in the human body. Some original calculation methods are proposed to assess the induced voltage in the loop area formed by a lead. By the proposed procedure, it is possible to quickly calculate the electromagnetic interference in the pacemaker during wireless battery recharging of an EV. The induced voltage is one of the most important parameters to perform the risk analysis and assessment.