access icon openaccess Intra-body microwave communication through adipose tissue

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.

Inspec keywords: body sensor networks; biological tissues; dielectric losses; phantoms; electromagnetic wave transmission

Other keywords: industrial radio band; water; lateral intrabody microwave communication; tissue thicknesses; transmission losses; scientific radio band; signal coupling; equivalent phantom; dielectric losses; electromagnetic wave transmission; biological tissue layers; R-band frequencies; ex-vivo measurements; medical radio band; wireless body sensor networks; phantom measurements; electromagnetic simulations; adipose tissue layer; salts

Subjects: Biomedical communication; Microwaves and other electromagnetic waves (medical uses); Wireless sensor networks; Microwaves and other electromagnetic waves (biomedical imaging/measurement)

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