On medical implant communication of IR-UWB

peer reviewedImpulse Radio-Ultra-Wideband (IR-UWB) is gaining popularity for a variety of short-range Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) applications. In-body to outside-body communication is one of the possible applications of IR-UWB signals. This paper analyses various aspects related to implant communication of IRUWB signals, antenna gain characteristics, propagation loss, and Bit Error Rate (BER) variation. The development of an implantable IR-UWB antenna that operates in the frequency range of 3.5-4.5 GHz is discussed. Its operation within the implant environment is described in terms of simulated and measured antenna gain. Experiments that evaluate the path loss and BER characteristics of IR-UWB communication are carried out using pork, which is used as the human tissue simulating material. Experimental results show a path loss variation of more than 90 dB for an in-body propagation distance of 100 mm. The BER experiments show that this IR-UWB system can operate at a BER of 10-3 for an in-body propagation distance of 100mm when it is operating at a data rate of 1Mbps. Copyright © 2014 ICST