Immunity tests of implantable cardiac pacemaker against CW and pulsed ELF fields: experimental and numerical results

The aim of the present work is to investigate pacemaker (PMK) immunity against high-level extremely low frequency (typically 50 Hz) magnetic fields that can be found in industrial environment where high power machines operate. To that purpose, a test bench has been set up using a Helmholtz coil for producing extremely low frequency magnetic fields and a trunk simulator rightly fed by cardiac signals. A widely used PMK was tested, and results have been reported, under different operating conditions, for both continuous waves and variously pulsed excitations. A numerical tool has also been developed to analyze the realized test bench, based on a proper discretization of a human trunk simulation and on the construction of an equivalent three-dimensional (3-D) network. Numerical results have showed a good agreement with the experimental results.