A Compact Size Implantable Antenna for Bio-medical Applications

Implantable antennas play a vital role in implantable sensors and medical devices. In this paper, we present the design of a compact size implantable antenna for biomedical applications. The antenna is designed to operate in ISM band at 915 MHz and the overall size of the antenna is 4×4×0.3mm3. A shorting pin is used to lower the operating frequency of the antenna. For excitation purpose a 50-ohm coaxial probe feed is used in the design. A superstrate layer is placed on the patch to prevent the direct contact between the radiating patch and body tissues. The antenna is simulated in skin layer model. The designed antenna demonstrates a gain of 3.22 dBi while having a -10 dB bandwidth of 240 MHz with good radiation characteristics at 915 MHz. The simulated results show that this antenna is an excellent candidate for implantable applications

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationSince the late 1950s, scientists have been working toward realizing implantable devices that would directly monitor or even control the human body's internal activities. Sophisticated microsystems are used to improve our understanding of internal biological processes in animals and humans. The diversity of biomedical research dictates that microsystems must be developed and customized specifically for each new application. For advanced long-term experiments, a custom designed system-on-chip (SoC) is usually necessary to meet desired specifications. Custom SoCs, however, are often prohibitively expensive, preventing many new ideas from being explored. In this work, we have identified a set of sensors that are frequently used in biomedical research and developed a single-chip integrated microsystem that offers the most commonly used sensor interfaces, high computational power, and which requires minimum external components to operate. Included peripherals can also drive chemical reactions by setting the appropriate voltages or currents across electrodes. The SoC is highly modular and well suited for prototyping in and ex vivo experimental devices. The system runs from a primary or secondary battery that can be recharged via two inductively coupled coils. The SoC includes a 16-bit microprocessor with 32 kB of on chip SRAM. The digital core consumes 350 μW at 10 MHz and is capable of running at frequencies up to 200 MHz. The integrated microsystem has been fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS technology and the silicon has been fully tested. Integrated peripherals include two sigma-delta analog-to-digital converters, two 10-bit digital-to-analog converters, and a sleep mode timer. The system also includes a wireless ultra-wideband (UWB) transmitter. The fullydigital transmitter implementation occupies 68 x 68 μm2 of silicon area, consumes 0.72 μW static power, and achieves an energy efficiency of 19 pJ/pulse at 200 MHz pulse repetition frequency. An investigation of the suitability of the UWB technology for neural recording systems is also presented. Experimental data capturing the UWB signal transmission through an animal head are presented and a statistical model for large-scale signal fading is developed

A Tri-Band Implantable Antenna for Biotelemetry Applications

In this paper we propose a compact size rectangular implantable tri-band patch antenna for biotelemetry applications. Rogers RT6010 is used as substrate and superstrate material. The resonant frequency is further lowered by using a shorting pin which also reduces patch resistance. For excitation 50-ohm microstrip line is used. The antenna operates in MICS band (402405) MHz, ISM band (902-928) MHz and (2.4-2.48) GHz at 402 MHz, 915 MHz and 2.4 GHz. The gain of the antenna is 2.05 dBi, 2.67 dBi and 5.39 dBi with bandwidth of 120 MHz, 166 MHz and 190 MHz at relevant frequencies when simulated in a fat layer box. SAR values are within allowable limits. The simulated results show that the antenna is an excellent choice for implantable applications as it can be used for data transmission, wakeup signal and wireless power transfer by using three frequency bands

RF energy harvesters for wireless sensors, state of the art, future prospects and challenges: a review

The power consumption of portable gadgets, implantable medical devices (IMDs) and wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) has reduced significantly with the ongoing progression in low-power electronics and the swift advancement in nano and microfabrication. Energy harvesting techniques that extract and convert ambient energy into electrical power have been favored to operate such low-power devices as an alternative to batteries. Due to the expanded availability of radio frequency (RF) energy residue in the surroundings, radio frequency energy harvesters (RFEHs) for low-power devices have garnered notable attention in recent times. This work establishes a review study of RFEHs developed for the utilization of low-power devices. From the modest single band to the complex multiband circuitry, the work reviews state of the art of required circuitry for RFEH that contains a receiving antenna, impedance matching circuit, and an AC-DC rectifier. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages associated with various circuit architectures are comprehensively discussed. Moreover, the reported receiving antenna, impedance matching circuit, and an AC-DC rectifier are also compared to draw conclusions towards their implementations in RFEHs for sensors and biomedical devices applications

Advances in Microelectronics for Implantable Medical Devices

Implantable medical devices provide therapy to treat numerous health conditions as well as monitoring and diagnosis. Over the years, the development of these devices has seen remarkable progress thanks to tremendous advances in microelectronics, electrode technology, packaging and signal processing techniques. Many of today’s implantable devices use wireless technology to supply power and provide communication. There are many challenges when creating an implantable device. Issues such as reliable and fast bidirectional data communication, efficient power delivery to the implantable circuits, low noise and low power for the recording part of the system, and delivery of safe stimulation to avoid tissue and electrode damage are some of the challenges faced by the microelectronics circuit designer. This paper provides a review of advances in microelectronics over the last decade or so for implantable medical devices and systems. The focus is on neural recording and stimulation circuits suitable for fabrication in modern silicon process technologies and biotelemetry methods for power and data transfer, with particular emphasis on methods employing radio frequency inductive coupling. The paper concludes by highlighting some of the issues that will drive future research in the field

Global Growth and Trends of In-Body Communication Research—Insight From Bibliometric Analysis

A bibliometric analysis was conducted to examine research on in-body communication. This study aimed to assess the research growth in different countries, identify influential authors for potential international collaboration, investigate research challenges, and explore future prospects for in-body communication. A total of 148 articles written in English from journals and conference proceedings were gathered from the Scopus database. These articles cover the period from 2006 until August 2023. VOS Viewer 1.6.19 and Tableau Cloud were used to analyze the data. The analysis reveals that research on in-body communication has shown fluctuations but overall tends to increase. The United States, Finland, and Japan were identified as the leading countries (top three) in terms of publication quantity, while researchers from Norway, Finland, and Morocco received the highest number of citations. The University of Oulu in Finland has emerged as a productive institution in this field. Collaborative research opportunities exist with the countries mentioned above or with authors who have expertise in this topic. The dominant research topic within this field pertains to ultra-wideband (UWB) technology. One of the future challenges in this field is the exploration of optical wireless communication (OWC) as a potential communication medium for in-body devices, such as electronic devices implanted in the human body. This includes improving performance to meet the requirements for in-body communication devices. Additionally, this paper provides further insights into the progress of research on OWC for in-body communication conducted in our laboratory