- Near-field electromagnetic waves transfer power over very short distances. The tech is used to recharge wireless toothbrushes when resting in the cradle & in some medical devices implanted near skin.
- The Stanford team’s mid-field power transfer technology can send electromagnetic waves farther from the source by using tissue to amplify it.
- In the Stanford team’s mid-field power transfer technology, the transmitter is built in such a way that tissue amplifies the electromagnetic wave to penetrate deeper into the body to power a device.
- A mid-field wireless transmitter can directly power a tiny medical implant or recharge its batteries, an advance the Stanford team says is not possible today.
Could New Wireless Power Transfer Unleash Electric Medicine?
Stanford University engineers say they have figured out a way to wirelessly send electric power deeper into the body than ever before.
Inventor and electrical engineering assistant professor Ada Poon created a near-field power transmitter like those used to recharge wireless toothbrushes in their cradle. The difference is that hers uses tissue between the transmitter and medical device implanted in the body to amplify the electromagnetic waves. Her team then created an electrode and receiver unit about the size of a grain of rice that can be placed wherever electrical stimulation is required.
Read more and see the video below.