title: Electromagnetic limits to radiofrequency (RF) neuronal telemetry.
abstract: The viability of a radiofrequency (RF) telemetry channel for reporting individual neuron activity wirelessly from an embedded antenna to an external receiver is determined. Comparing the power at the transmitting antenna required for the desired Channel Capacity, to the maximum power that this antenna can dissipate in the body without altering or damaging surrounding tissue reveals the severe penalty incurred by miniaturization of the antenna. Using both Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) and thermal damage limits as constraints, and 300 Kbps as the required capacity for telemetry streams 100 ms in duration, the model shows that conventional antennas smaller than 0.1 mm could not support human neuronal telemetry to a remote receiver (1 m away.) Reducing the antenna to 10 microns in size to enable the monitoring of single human neuron signals to a receiver at the surface of the head would require operating with a channel capacity of only 0.3 bps.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, and Security & Defense Systems Initiative, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 85287 USA.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Diaz
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, and Security & Defense Systems Initiative, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 85287 USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sebastian
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D036103:Nanotechnology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D011846:Radio Waves; D013686:Telemetry / Q000379:methods*