The Effect of the Implant Casing Material on Tissue Heating during Transcutaneous Inductive Power Transfer

Numerical simulation of heating of the surrounding biological tissues by a transcutaneous inductive power transfer system with an output power of 500 mW has been performed. A four-layer skin–fat–fascia–muscle model of biological tissue and a model of the inductive power transfer system with three volumetric heat sources (transmitter coil on the skin, receiver coil and rectifier in the subcutaneous fat layer) were used. Six materials of the implant casing were tested: ABS plastic, polypropylene, polycarbonate, silicone, polyethylene terephthalate, and Y-TZP ceramic. It was found that Y-TZP ceramic provided minimum tissue heating (maximum increase in temperature, 1.6 °C); heating was maximum when polypropylene was used (maximum increase in temperature, 2.3 °C).