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Power Optimization in Battery-Powered Micro-Motors
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  • Hen-Wei Huang ,
  • Naitik Khandelwal ,
  • Tom Kerssemakers ,
  • Ian Ballinger ,
  • Giovanni Traverso
Hen-Wei Huang
Harvard Medical School

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Naitik Khandelwal
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Tom Kerssemakers
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Ian Ballinger
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Giovanni Traverso
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Abstract

Recent advances in integrated circuits and micromachining have enabled the integration of battery-powered micro-actuators in miniaturized drug delivery systems. However, the power/energy management system that treats current overloading remains sub-optimal. Overloading not only deteriorates the actuators’ long-term performance but also attenuates battery capacity. In this work, we are proposing a simple yet powerful solution to manage current overloading to maximize battery-powered system life-time. The proposed solution consists of a digitally programmable soft starter and DC-DC converter that can dynamically balance the trade-off between inrush current amplitude and motor starting speed as well as maximally minimize the continuous current draw from a battery. Our experimental results show that the proposed soft starter alone can enhance the battery capacity by 18% and together with the DC-DC converter, they can increase the drug delivery cycles by 33% without sacrificing the system’s output performance.