Advanced Energy Storage Film Capacitors for Automated External Defibrillators

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): More than 1000 American die every single day due to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), which claims more lives than breast cancer, AIDS, and lung cancer combined. The survival from SCA strongly depends on the early defibrillation and the probability of survival decreases by 7-10% for every minute of delay in defibrillation. In fact, less than 5% of patients with out-of-hospital SCA can survive to hospitalization. It has been found that automated external defibrillators (AED) can at least double the overall survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients. In this fast-track SBIR program, Strategic Polymer Sciences, Inc. (SPS) proposes to develop low-cost compact film capacitors with ultra-high electrical energy density for portable AED. The advanced capacitors will utilize the recent breakthrough dielectric materials discovered at Penn State University (Zhang et al. Science 280:2101; 313:334; 321:821; and Nature 419:284) and the commercial-scale resin production and thin film processing technologies developed by SPS. For the same amount of delivered energy, the SPS capacitors will be 80% smaller and 50% cheaper than the current polypropylene (PP) AED capacitors. The advanced SPS film capacitors will shrink the size and reduce the cost of AED, facilitate the deployment of AED in millions of American homes and public buildings, and save thousands of patients with heart arrhythmia problem. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The development of ultra-high energy density capacitors based on advanced SPS dielectric materials can significantly reduce the size and cost of Automated External Defibrillators (AED). This will enable the deployment of AED in millions of homes of patients with heart arrhythmia problem who are facing the threat of delayed defibrillation if AED not available.