Intra‐body microwave communication through adipose tissue. Issue 4 (23rd May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Asan, Noor Badariah; Noreland, Daniel; Hassan, Emadeldeen; Redzwan Mohd Shah, Syaiful; Rydberg, Anders; Blokhuis, Taco J.; Carlsson, Per‐Ola; Voigt, Thiemo; Augustine, Robin
• Is Part Of: Healthcare technology letters. Volume 4:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 115
• Page End: 121
• Publication Date: 2017-05-23
• Subjects: electromagnetic wave transmission -- body sensor networks -- biological tissues -- phantoms -- dielectric losses; electromagnetic wave transmission -- wireless body sensor networks -- transmission losses -- water -- salts -- lateral intrabody microwave communication -- biological tissue layers -- tissue thicknesses -- signal coupling -- R‐band frequencies -- industrial radio band -- scientific radio band -- medical radio band -- electromagnetic simulations -- equivalent phantom -- ex‐vivo measurements -- adipose tissue layer -- phantom measurements -- dielectric losses; Biomedical engineering -- Periodicals; Medical technology -- Periodicals; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1049/htl.2016.0104
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2053-3713

Abstract

Abstract : The human body can act as a medium for the transmission of electromagnetic waves in the wireless body sensor networks context. However, there are transmission losses in biological tissues due to the presence of water and salts. This Letter focuses on lateral intra‐body microwave communication through different biological tissue layers and demonstrates the effect of the tissue thicknesses by comparing signal coupling in the channel. For this work, the authors utilise the R‐band frequencies since it overlaps the industrial, scientific and medical radio (ISM) band. The channel model in human tissues is proposed based on electromagnetic simulations, validated using equivalent phantom and ex‐vivo measurements. The phantom and ex‐vivo measurements are compared with simulation modelling. The results show that electromagnetic communication is feasible in the adipose tissue layer with a low attenuation of ∼2 dB per 20 mm for phantom measurements and 4 dB per 20 mm for ex‐vivo measurements at 2 GHz. Since the dielectric losses of human adipose tissues are almost half of ex‐vivo tissue, an attenuation of around 3 dB per 20 mm is expected. The results show that human adipose tissue can be used as an intra‐body communication channel.