The evolution of seven generations of power sources for implantable cardiov
erter defibrillators (ICD) is presented. The packaging efficiency of the po
wer sources has steadily increased, resulting in smaller, lighter batteries
while maintaining the required electrical characteristics. The main areas
for improvement were reduction of headspace volume, reduction of separator
volume, and a change from a two-cell battery to a single cell. (C) 2001 Pub
lished by Elsevier Science B.V.