Medtronic’s Micra pacemakers are one-tenth the size of what was previously out there. How the medtech giant did it provides lessons for anyone looking to shrink an implantable device. It was an all-hands-on-deck effort that consumed Medtronic in the early 2010s: the in-house creation of a pacemaker small enough to go inside the heart via…

Panasonic Industrial Devices Sales Co. of America recently announced a new addition to its line of lithium-ion pin cells for the wearables market. The Panasonic CG420A lithium-ion pin batteries have a spiral-wound construction that enables higher reliability and rapid charging (80% charged in 20 minutes), according to Panasonic. The company says the batteries, which are…

What’s the next big disruption in battery technology? Three experts from Integer, a global leader in medical device outsourcing, weigh in. Martin Cholette, Robert Rubino and Chris Williams, Integer What new technologies in medtech are being enabled by advances in battery technology? Chris Williams: One new technology is the leadless cardiac pacing market. Integer has developed…

Keystone Electronics (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) recently introduced a new line of battery insulators designed to protect batteries and circuitry from energizing during shipping and storage. Device creators can install the pull tabs in a product along with the batteries so that they can insulate and prevent the batteries from energizing prior to use. Device users simply…

University College London’s Electrochemical Innovation Laboratory is using Zeiss Xradia 810 Ultra X-ray microscopy to study the inner-workings of batteries and fuel cells, Zeiss recently announced. The Xradia 810 Ultra helps researchers to study the evolution of microstructure down to 50 nm resolution. Such resolution offers a 3D picture of the fine details of lithium…