Reagan Healy
Research Mentor(s): Binh Truong
Mentor Department: Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
Authors: Reagan Healy, Binh Truong
Session: Session 2 (10:00am – 10:50am)
Presentation Type: Poster 65
Abstract
Magnetoelectric (ME) transducers offer a promising solution for wireless power transfer (WPT) in biomedical applications, with the potential to provide sufficient energy for the operation of implantable devices within a miniaturized, constrained volume. The primary aims of this research are to explore the highest possible performance of ME WPT systems by investigating the optimal conditions of the key parameters, such as the real and imaginary parts of the electrical load. Our findings reveal that the maximum output power of an electrically lossless transducer is independent of the electromechanical coupling coefficient, which contradicts the well-established result in the literature. This opens many more opportunities for system optimization. When electrical losses are considered to more accurately capture the properties of ME WPT systems, we introduce an effective figure of merit (EFoM), which accounts for both mechanical and electrical losses, and express the largest transferable power as a function of this quantity. An EFoM indicates how well an ME generator performs compared to an ideal one, and a higher EFoM is desirable. In addition, we determine the optimal transducer geometry under volume constraints, showing that a thicker magnetostrictive and thinner piezoelectric configuration is preferable to maximize deliverable power at a given resonance frequency. By providing analytical solutions rather than relying solely on numerical models, this work establishes a comprehensive framework for designing high-performance ME transducers tailored for biomedical implants. These insights contribute to the development of compact, high-power-density implantable devices with significantly improved WPT capabilities.
