2015 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks

Implantable Antennas in Biomedical Applications

Amandeep Chauhan (1),Gurveer Kaur Chauhan* (1), and Gurpreet Kaur (1)

(1) Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, India, 141006, Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT rapidly increase from an already large base

Biomedical telemetry permits the [1].
measurement of physiological signals at a Until recently, no globally accepted
distance, through either wired or wireless frequency band had been dedicated to
communication technologies. Physiological biotelemetry for implantable medical
signals are obtained by means of appropriate devices. The situation changed with the
transducers, post-processed, and eventually ITU-R Recommendation SA.1346, which
transmitted to exterior monitoring/control outlined the use of the 402.0-405.0 MHz
equipment. One of the latest developments frequency band for Medical Implant
of bio medical telemetry is in the field of Communications Systems (MICS). The
implantable medical devices (IMDs). Low- MICS band is currently regulated by the
frequency inductive links have long been the United States Federal Communications
most prevalent method of biotelemetry for Commission (FCC) and the European
implantable medical devices. However, they Radio-communications Committee (ERC).
suffer from low data rates (1-30 kbps), The 433.1-434.8 MHz, 868-868.6 MHz,
restricted range of communication (< 10 902.8-928 MHz, and 2400-2500 MHz
cm), and increased sensitivity to inter-coil Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM)
positioning. To overcome these limitations, bands are also suggested for implantable
research is currently oriented towards medical device bio telemetry in some
radiofrequency (RF)-linked implantable countries [2-5]. However, focus is on the
medical devices. MICS band, because of its advantages of
Keywords: IMD (Implantable Medical Devices, being available worldwide and being
MICS (Medical Implant Communications Systems), feasible with low-power and low-cost
FES (functional electrical stimulators), ISM
(Industrial, Scientific, and Medical)
circuits, reliably supporting high-data-rate
transmissions, falling within a relatively
I. INTRODUCTION low-noise portion of the spectrum, lending
itself to small antenna designs, and
Millions of people worldwide depend upon acceptably propagating through human
implantable medical devices to support and tissue. A key and critical component of RF-
improve the quality of their lives. RF-linked linked implantable medical devices is the
implantable medical devices are already in integrated implantable antenna, which
use for a wide variety of applications, enables bidirectional communication with
including temperature monitors, pacemakers the exterior monitoring/ control equipment.
and cardioverter defibrillators, functional Patch designs are currently receiving
electrical stimulators (FES), blood-glucose considerable attention for implantable
sensors, and cochlear and retinal implants. antennas, because they are highly flexible in
As technology continues to evolve, new design, shape, and conformability, thus
implantable medical devices are being allowing for relatively easy miniaturization
developed, and their use is expected to and integration into the shape of the

978-1-5090-0076-0/15 $31.00 2015 IEEE 25

DOI 10.1109/CICN.2015.14
implantab ble medicall device. Inn a realisticc dieleectric loss tangent, tan = 0..001),
scenario,, implantablee patch antennas will bee MACOR ( r = 6.1; tann = 0.005), and
mounted on the ex xisting hardw ware of thee ceraamic aluminna ( r = 9.44; tan = 00.006)
implantab ble medical device, whiich will also
o [6]. However, it is importtant to highhlight
serve as the
t ground plane.
p that ceramic suubstrates doo not easily lend
The desiign of impllantable patch antennass themmselves to drrilling and roound cuts.
has attraacted high scientific interest forr
fulfilling
g the requirem
ments off III. IMPLANTA ABLE ANTENNA DES SIGN
biocompatibility, miniaturizatio
m on, patientt S
STRATEGIE ES
safety, annd high-quallity communnication with
h Seveeral strategiies have beeen proposedd for
exterior equipmennt. Numeerical andd impllantable anntenna desiign. These are
experimeental investiigations are also highlyy mainnly dictated by the fact that antennaas are
intriguingg. intennded to opperate insidde human ttissue
insteead of free space. Thee antenna shhould
II. IMPLANTA
ABLE ANTEENNA thereefore be dessigned inside free spacee, and
BIOCOM
MPATIBILTY
Y furthher refined for tissue implantationn, or
desi gned directtly inside an environnment
Implantaable antennass must be biocompatiblee surroounded withh human tissuue.
in orderr to preserrve patient safety and d
prevent rejection of thee implant. Use of a singlle-layer tissuue model is the
Furthermmore, human n tissues are conductive,, simpplest and faastest optionn when desiggning
and wou uld short circuit
c the implantablee impllantable anttennas direcctly inside ttissue
antenna if
i they weree allowed to be in directt mateerial. Folloowing thiss methodoology,
contact with its metallization
m . anteennas are dessigned for a generic tiissue-
Biocomp patibility and prevvention off impllantation sscenario. Simplified ttissue
undesirabble short-ccircuits are especially y moddels in the shhape of a cuube, a rectanngular
crucial in
i the casee of antenn nas that aree paraallelepiped aand a cylindeer have beenn used
intended for long-tterm implan ntation. Thee for tthis purpose. The designn is performeed by
most wid dely used approach
a forr preserving
g seleccting the dielectric material, and
the biocoompatibility of the antenna whilee subssequently opptimizing alll antenna ddesign
at the same time separating the metall paraameters to rrefine tuninng at the deesired
radiator from
f human n tissue is to cover thee operrating frequeency.
structure with a sup perstrate dielectric layerr
Anoother option is to design the antenna for a
as shownn in Fig 1.1.
speccific implanntation site by taking into
accoount a speccific region of the boddy. A
multtilayer tissuee model, witth either finite or
infinnite dimensiions, is seleccted in this case.
For example, im mplantable aantennas inteended
for trunk and chest impllantation caan be
direcctly designeed inside thhree-layer pplanar
tissuue models cconsisting oof skin, fat,, and
musscle tissues.
Fig1.1: Biocompatibilityy issues for imp
plantable patch
h
antennas: the adddition of a supeerstrate. Receently, a novel tw wo-step ddesign
methhodology has been proposed for
Common nly used biocompatibl
b le materialss impllantable anntennas. T
This emphaasizes
include Teflon (permittivity, r = 2.1;;

26
design speed-up
s an
nd optimizedd resonancee (MR RI) or compputer tomoggraphy (CT) data
performaance inside a specific implantation
i n withh the electriccal propertiees of human body
site. Thiss involves an
a approximmate antennaa tissuues as shownn in Fig 1.3.
design in nside a sim
mplified tissu
ue model (aa
cube fiilled with the inten nded tissuee
material)), and further
f qu
uasi-Newton n
optimizattion inside a canonical model
m of thee
desired implantation n site. Deespite being g
optimized inside a canonical
c tissue model,,
gned antennaas were show
the desig wn to exhibitt
insignificcant resonan
nce discrepaancies insidee
detailed anatomical
a tissue
t models [7].
IV. STU UMERICAL PROCESS:
UDY OF NU
TISSUE
E MODELS
Figg 1.3: An anatoomical human head tissue moodel
In num merical sim mulations, implantablee
antennas are analyzed inside inho
omogeneouss As ffar as antennna design iss concerned,, it is
lossy meedia that sim
mulate biolog
gical tissues. impoortant to highlight that multiilayer
Biologicaal tissues have their t own
n canoonical moddels have bbeen proveen to
permittiv
vity ( r), conductivitty (), and d provvide an acceeptable model for the huuman
mass-dennsity values. bodyy. Highlly similaar returnn-loss
charracteristics have beeen found for
Canoniccal Tissue Models
M are often
o used to
o impllantable pattch antennass inside a tthree-
speed upp simulationss, and to easse the designn layeer planar geoometry and a realistic m model
of implaantable antennas. Thesee may be a of thhe human chhest, as well as inside a tthree-
single laayer, thus acccounting foor a genericc layeer spherical and an anattomical moddel of
tissue im
mplantable antenna.
a Theey may also o the hhuman head.
be multiilayer, thus providing a simplified d
model off a specific implantation n site insidee V
V. STUDY OF EXPE
ERIMENTA
AL
the humaan body as sh hown in Fig.1.2. PROCESSS
Exp erimental innvestigationss are requirred in
ordeer to confirmm the validdity of numeerical
simuulations for implantablee antennas. S Since
it is not possiblle to carry oout measurem ments
insidde real operrating scenaarios (i.e., iinside
the human bbody), invvestigations are
perfformed byy measuriing laboraatory-
fabrricated protootypes insidde either tiissue-
Fig 1.2: A three- layer (skin/fat/musclle) canonical
equiivalent meddiums (phanntoms) or annimal
ue model
tissu tissuue [8].

Anatomiical Tissue Models aree often used d TYPE FABR

PROTOT RICATION
to obtain
n more realistic results. Anatomicall
Duee to the unaavailability oof biocompaatible
tissue models
m aree produced d by thee
mateerials in some laboratories, other
combinattion of magnnetic-resonannce imaging
g
dieleectrics with similar electrical properties

27
may be selected forr prototype fabrication. Meaasurements of the liqquids elecctrical
For instaance, Rogers 3210 ( r = 10.2, tan = propperties ( r annd ) are connducted by eeither
0.003) is often used because
b it haas propertiess the oopen-ended coaxial cabble techniquee or a
similar to the biocompatib
b le ceramicc dieleectric probee kit (e.g., A
Agilents 85070E
alumina ( r = 9.4, tan = 0.006) [9]. dieleectric probbe kit). A As part off the
Prototypee fabricattion of implantablee expeerimental seetup [10], prrototype anteennas
antennas meets all classical diifficulties off are cconnected too a network analyzer thrrough
miniaturee antennas. For examplee, additionall a cooaxial cable,, immersed iinside the tiissue-
glue layyers used to o affix all componentss emuulating phaantom, andd measuredd. A
together strongly
y affect antennaa multtilayer phanttom is as shoown in Fig. 1.4.
performaance, by shifting
s thee antennass
resonance frequenccy and deegrading itss
matching g characteristics.
Furthermmore, the coaaxial cable feed
f used to
o
connect the antenn na with th he network k
analyzer may give riise to radiatting currentss
on the ouuter part of the cable, wh
hich, in turn,,
deterioraate measureements. Bassed on thee
above, thhe numericall antenna mo odel must bee
slightly adjusted
a in order to tak
ke prototypee
Fig.11. 4: A multilayyer gel canoniccal phantom ussed for
fabricatioon consideerations intto account. testing of im
mplantable pattch antennas
Numerical simulations and experimental
e l
measurem ments must be carried out
o with thee
exact samme antenna structure in order to bee T
TESTING IN
NSIDE ANIM
MAL TISSU
UE
able to vaalidate the design.
d
Testting insidee animal tissue cann be
TESTING INSIDE PHANT TOMS perfformed eitther by embedding the
Testing inside phan ntoms is relaatively easyy impllantable anttenna insidee tissue sam mples
and pracctical to imp plement. Thhe fabricatedd fromm donor aanimals, orr by surgiically
prototypee is immeersed insid de a tissuee impllanting the antenna innside live m model
phantom (i.e., a container filled with
w a liquid d animmals (in-vivoo testing). IIn the first case,
or gel material
m thatt mimics thhe electricall electtrical properrties of the ttest tissue caan be
propertiees of bio ological tissue), and d meaasured usingg a dielectricc probe kit aand a
measured d. For validaation purposes, the samee netwwork analyzeer. The use of animal-ttissue
scenario as that of th
he numericall simulationss samp
mples providdes an eassy approacch to
has to be considerred. Recipees proposed d mimmicking thhe frequeency-dependdency
mainly inncluded deio onised waterr, sugar, and
d charracteristics oof the electriical propertiies of
salt[2].Too prevent the formattion of airr tissuues. This cann prove highhly advantaggeous
bubbles and/or gapss, the mixtu ure must bee wheen carrying oout measureements for m multi-
carefully
y heated an nd stirred, and slowly y bandd implantablle antennas. Fig 1.5 shoows a
poured in nside the co he phantom.
ontainer of th triplle-band impplantable paatch antennaa that
Since it is not possible to prod duce a validd was tested inside a minced ffront leg of a pig.
approximmation to hu uman tissue for a broad d
frequency y spectrum using a sing gle formula,,
separate recipes arre given for fo differentt
frequency y bands.

28
 [2] A. Kiourti aand K. S. Nikkita, " A Reviiew of
Implantable Patch Antennnas for Biom medical
Telemetry: Challenges annd Solutions" IEEE
Antennas annd Propagationn Magazine, vvol.54,
pp. 210-228, June 2012.

[3] P. Valdastri,, A. Menciassi, A. Arenna, C.

Caccamo, annd P. Dario,, An Implaantable
Telemetry P Platform Systtem for In Vivo
Monitoring off Physiologicaal Parameters, IEEE
Transactions on Informattion Technoloogy in
Biomedicine, 8, 3, Septemmber 2004, pp. 271-
Fig 1.5: Testing of an implantable pa
atch antenna 278.
inside an ntenna surgically implanted
nimal tissue: an
into
o a rat. [4] M
M. R. Basar, F. Malek, K. M. Juni, M. S. Idrris and
M. Saleh, Ingestible Wireless Capsule
In-vivo investigation
i ns are also vital
v in orderr Technology: A Review off Developmennt and
to investiigate the efffects of live tissue
t on thee Future Indiccation Hinddawi Internaational
performaance of impllantable patcch antennas,, Journal of Anntennas and PPropagation, vvol.12,
while providing
p valuable
v feedback forr pp. 1-14, Dec 2012.
antenna design
d and analysis.
a [5] T
T. G. Zimmeerman, "Persoonal area netw works:
Near-field inntra-body com mmunication", IBM
VI. CON
NCLUSION
N Syst. J., vol. 335, no. 34, pp.. 609617, 19996.

Implantaable medicall devices aree a growingg [6] P

P. Soontornpippit, C. M. Fursee and Y. C. Chhung, "
technologgy with a high po otential forr Design of Immplantable Miccrostrip Antennna for
Communicatioon With Mediccal Implants ",, IEEE
improvinng patients life and the quality off Transactions on Microw wave Theory and
healthcarre. RF technology for implantablee Techniques, vvol. 52, pp. 19444-1951, Aug 22004.
medical devices prom mises many benefits forr
both patients and carregivers. [7] T
T. Karacolak, A. Z. Hoodd, and E. Toppsakal,
Design of a Dual-Band Im mplantable Anntenna
Even tho ough emphaasis has beeen given to o and Developm ment of Skin Mimicking Geels for
Continuous Glucose M Monitoring IEEE
implantabble patch antennas, it i is worth h Transactions on Microw wave Theory and
noting thhat the shaape of the implantablee Techniques, vvol. 56, pp. 10001-1008,April 22008.
medical device and the intendedd
implantattion site will
w actually dictate thee [8] E
E.Y. Chow, M M. M. Morris and P.P. Iraazoqui,
"Implantable RF Medicaal Devices", IEEE
type of the
t antenna. Several meethodologiess Microwave M Magazine,vol.114, pp.64-73, June
have beeen proposed for implantaable antennaa 2013.
design, all of whiich need to o take into o
account the host body.
b Simpllified tissuee [9] A
A. Kiourti and K. S. Nikita, Recent Advannces in
Implantable AAntennas for M Medical Telem
metry",
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h proven to be able to substitutee IEEE Antennnas and Proppagation Maggazine,
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m thuss vol.54, pp. 190-199, 2012.
speeding
g up simulations.
Guo and S. Xiaao, Compact Dual-
[10] C. Liu,Y.X G
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