Power Supply

From Capsil Wiki

Due to safety concerns, batteries remain the main choice for power supplies for medical devices, especially for wearable sensors. Depends on the power density requires, commonly used batteries includes: Alkaline, Nickel-cadmium, Lithium-ion, Lithium-ion Polymer, Silver-oxide, Zinc-air, etc. Primary batteries, such as, zinc-air cell, often has high power density comparing to rechargeable batteries, such as Nickel-cadmium, but rechargeable batteries are often chosen to minimise the cost and the affects on the environment.

To enable continuous sensing and prolong the lifetime of sensors, extensive research works have been conducted in power scavenging techniques. Thermal power and human motion are two common approaches for power scavenging for wearable sensors.

Another approach to power up miniaturised sensors, especially for implantable sensors, is bio-fuel cell, where glucose are collected and used as the fuel to power up the sensors.