Epidermal RFID-based programmable smart shield for enhancing security of implantable cardiac devices

In recent years, Implantable Medical Devices (IMDs) have advanced with wireless connectivity, enhancing diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities while introducing cyber and physical vulnerabilities that could threaten patient safety. This paper proposes an epidermal RFID-based wireless programmable smart shield to protect Implantable Cardiac Devices (ICDs) from physical attacks. Positioned on the patient’s skin, the shield blocks untrusted electromagnetic fields in the 401-406 MHz band and can be wirelessly reconfigured at 900 MHz to enable communication with a trusted external programmer for medical assistance. The smart shield is designed as a programmable Frequency Selective Surface (FSS). Preliminary simulations of the unit cell, featuring an RFID IC and PIN diodes for wireless reconfiguration, confirm the concept’s feasibility

RFID-Based Reconfigurable Electromagnetic Devices

Modern wireless communication systems are becoming increasingly necessary, emphasizing the need for electromagnetic devices that can flexibly operate under different conditions, e.g., under power constraints or in hostile environments where scattering objects randomly modify coverage areas and communication links. Due to their ability to dynamically change operating frequency, radiation pattern, bandwidth characteristics, and polarization, reconfigurable objects (especially antennas and backscattering surfaces) have received significant attention in this context. Electromagnetic features can be electronically selected by controlling the bias voltage of tunable elements adequately integrated into the layout. Usually, this is done by employing external programmable controllers that need power sources and wired connections, leading to unusable configurations for several scenarios. Thus, exploring alternative electronic tuning mechanisms becomes essential. This paper proposes RFID-Based Reconfigurable Electromagnetic Devices as a wireless, cost-effective, and low-power solution. The system's operating principle, potential architectures, and applicability in practical scenarios are presented. Theoretical and experimental analysis validate the proposed architecture, whose capabilities are finally demonstrated by prototyping and testing two reconfigurable antenna arrays

Design of On-Body Epidermal Antenna on AMC Substrate for UHF RFID in Healthcare

This article presents a compact AMC structure used as a shielding element for a generic wearable RFID tag at UHF frequencies for on-body applications, with an overall footprint limited to an area of only 0.03λ 02 (41.4×82.8 mm). Thanks to the isolation provided by the AMC planar structure, the tag antenna gain and reading range are increased by about one order of magnitude in comparison with the case of a conventional tag attached to the human body. The designed antenna is platform tolerant, with very good robustness and isolation with respect to the human body, exhibiting a high reliability. The AMC structure is implemented on a thin, flexible, and biocompatible high permittivity silicon-doped dielectric substrate, with apertures both in the substrate and in the ground plane to allow skin transpiration. Therefore, the presented device can be effectively used also as an epidermal antenna, allowing the 'on-skin' sampling of the most typical health parameters. The presented configuration has been designed using CST Studio Suite. A prototype has been fabricated and fully characterized, and measured results are in very good agreement with simulations