The necessity of a multi-modal capsule endoscopy is becoming increasingly desirable as the number of intestinal cancer patients increases worldwide. Sonopill is a promising project to identify the symptoms of intestinal diseases at an early stage therefore provides better opportunities for the possible treatment. However, complete capsule based endoscopy requires multiple units including high resolution imaging system, several sensors and necessary data processing electronics. These devices need significant amount of power which can only be supported for a short period of time by current battery technology. Therefore, power is the biggest challenges to support such system, especially as the number of modalities increases.

Wireless power transfer technology appears as a strong contender in the field of biomedical implantable devices. Recent research works showed that the wireless technology can support power in different sensitive parts of the human body where the thread of the wired power can cause harm and powering by battery fails due to its capacity limitation. Sonopill is another perfect example of such biomedical diagnosis tool where multimodal functionality cannot be supported by a small battery for a long period and wired power is very difficult to achieve. Therefore, the real question is whether the wireless power technology is the best choice of power source for Sonopill?

I started my PhD at Heriot-Watt University as a part of Sonopill’s future strategy of wireless powered multimodality pill. With the technical support from Sumanth Kumar Pavuluri and supervision from Prof. Marc Desmulliez, I am working towards a 3D wireless power transfer system design. In my short journey with Sonopill, I tried to develop a strong theoretical background and, with that experience, I am working on development of a generic optimization model which will lead to the designing of wireless power transfer coils for Sonopill. However, in contrast with other biomedical implants the capsule suffers from very low area and continuous movement limitations. In addition, tissue safety is a further big challenge in the development of a wireless power link for capsule endoscopy. In summary, a big challenge is waiting ahead for me and the team to develop an effective power transfer system for Sonopill.    

First published: 5 December 2017

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