Signal transmission through human muscle for implantable medical devices using galvanic intra-body communication technique.
Signal transmission over human tissues has long been the center research topic for biomedical engineering in both academic and industrial arenas. This is particular important for implantable medical devices (IMD) to communicate with other sensor devices in achieving health care and monitoring functions. Traditional Radio Frequency (RF) transmission technique suffers from not only high attenuation but also potential interference & eavesdropping. This paper has examined the alternate galvanic type Intra-Body Communication Technique (IBC) in transmitting signal across the body tissue (mainly muscle) in both analytical electromagnetic model with simulation results. Comparisons of these results with traditional RF data in literatures show a high promising potential (saving over 10 dB or more in path loss) for IBC transmission. Concrete discussions and several further research directions are also given out at the end of this paper.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau.
Xi Mei
XM
Chen
Peng Un
PU
Mak
Sio Hang
SH
Pun
Yue Ming
YM
Gao
Mang I
MI
Vai
Min
M
Du
D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013499:Surface Properties; D013686:Telemetry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*