Wideband Implantable Antenna for Body-Area High Data Rate Impulse Radio Communication

Abstract

We successfully assess the feasibility of a passive body-implantable sensor antenna concept to reach 750 Mbps using impulse radio (IR) in the near-field. It is based on a uniplanar printed antenna configuration, operating in the 1.4- to 4.2-GHz band. The analysis includes the effect of the implant media, the performance in terms of data rate transmission (theoretical and experimental) and feasibility of a “passive” sensor concept in terms of power constraints associated with specific absorption rate (SAR) limits, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) power mask, energy scavenging circuit minimum activation energy, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Finally, we prove the potential of the overall system integrated with an electronic chip model and biocompatible material. To our knowledge there is no explicit study in the literature that fully demonstrates an implantable system with this kind of data rates addressing all the above.