DESIGN OF BIO IMPLANTABLE ANTENNA

FOR IN BODY APPLICATIONS

Kadiyala Sudhakar1, Modepalli Nagarjuna2*, R.Pandeeswari2**
1PG Student,2**Assistant Professor : Dept. of ECE, National Institute of Technology, Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India
Kadiyalasudhakar100@gmail.com, nagarjunamdpll20@gmail.com, rpands@nitt.edu.
Abstract This paper describes a flexible loop antenna for inbody applications. This antenna works in the Med Radio
band(402 MHZ-406 MHZ) which is the standard band for Bio
Implantable applications, ISM Bands at 433 MHZ-434.8 MHZ
and 902 MHZ- 928 MHZ. The antenna is having a size of a 3.5
mm radius and height of 15 mm. The simulated antenna is
having a Bandwidth of 228 MHZ (310 MHZ-538 MHZ) at 400
MHZ and 334 MHZ at 1GHZ having a VSWR<2.The Radiation
pattern of this antenna is unidirectional having a gain of -31.7
dBi.
Keywords-:BioImplantable;Biocompatible;ISM
Band;MedRadio Band;SAR,VSWR.

I. INTRODUCTION
In day to day life the importance to healthcare is
increasing, so, we are going for semi invasive method, that
make use of bio implantable antennas as one of its element. In
bio implantable antennas there are two types 1) Therapy 2)
Telemetry. In therapy we will transmit more energy on to the
defected cells. In telemetry we will get the information about
the tissues and the challenges with bio medical telemetry is
given in [1]. In these two things the major role will be played
by antenna.
Bio implantable antennas should be Biocompatible. The
antenna should be encapsulated by biocompatible material. If
we place the antenna directly into human body i.e., without
encapsulation it will effect the human tissue. The design
strategies are explained in [5]. There are so many
biocompatible materials like zirconia, peek, polyimide etc.,
having permittivity of 29, 3.2, 3.5 respectively are Taken from
[8] and theory from [7]

The proposed antenna is having a radius of 3.6 mm and

height 15 mm. It is having a gain of -31.6 dBi. It is having a
Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) < 2 at ISM Band and
Med Radio Band. The proposed antenna is having a SAR
(Specific Absorption Rate) of 428 W/Kg for 0.5 watts input
power. So, we should not give more than 3.7 milliwatts input
power. Normally low power batteries are available in the
market which will provide power in the order of microwatts.
Some manufacturing considerations are explained in [10].
II. DESIGN OF ANTENNA
The proposed structure is the extension of U shaped
antenna i.e., on the left and right sides there are two more U
shapes added which are facing each other. That configuration
is as shown in figure 1 and the antenna dimensions are
mentioned in table 1.The front and back views are as shown in
Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 respectively. Here the antenna is placed on
the substrate whose material is made up of polyimide whose
permittivity is 3.5 and having a thickness of 0.0254 mm. All
the antenna radiators are perfect electric conductors which are
excited using small power batteries. Antenna radiator is
having a thickness of 0.018mm. In the proposed work all the
middle radiating elements are having a length of 4 mm,
bottom radiating element is having a length of 7.5 mm and top
radiating elements each of length 7. These dimensions are
found using parametric analysis. All the dimensions are varied
until we get the desired frequency. The antenna is designed
using computer simulation technology (CST) which uses a
finite difference time domain (FDTD) method in the analysis
of the antenna.
TABLE. 1Antenna dimensions

The proposed antenna works at 400 MHZ. If we design an

antenna at this frequency the antenna dimensions will become
very high. To reduce the antenna size we are using meandered
or loop structures. In this structures we are increasing
electrical length instead of physical length. For bio
implantable antennas we need to consider one more important
parameter which is Specific Absorption Rate (SAR). This is a
safety parameter explained in [9]. As per IEEE standards SAR
should be below 1.6 W/Kg per 1-g averaging or 2 W/Kg per
10-g averaging in order to prevent hazardous heating of
biological tissues. Flexible loop antenna is proposed in [4] for
bone implants and the cavity slot antenna embedded in the
human arm is proposed in [6]. This proposed antenna for
Muscle, Fat and Skin implants.

Antenna parameters

Values(in mm)

Length of top elements, a

7.5

Length of middle elements, d

Length of bottom elements, e

Width of each element, c

Spacing between consecutive elements,

d-(2*c)

space conditions before placing it in a body model having a

return loss of -16 dB around 6.5 GHZ.

Fig. 1 Antenna structure before wrapping around the substrate

Fig. 4 Return loss of the antenna in free space before placing it in a body
model.

Fig. 2 Front View

After designing an antenna, it should be covered by an

encapsulation before placing it in a body model. Here the
encapsulation is polyimide which is having a thickness of
0.017 mm. Here the body model considered is a Muscle model
in cylindrical shape which is having a relative permittivity of
57.1 and having dimensions of radius 50 mm and height 100
mm. The return loss curve as shown in the Fig 5 having a
return loss of -32 dB at 400 MHZ as central frequency.

Fig. 3 Back View

III ANTENNA PERFORMANCE

In bio implantable antennas the antenna should be placed in
a body model. Human body model wont have uniform
dielectric constant and conductivity. They will vary with parts
like skin, fat, muscle etc., and their specifications as shown in
table 2.
TABLE. 2 Dielectric and Conductivity values for different body models.

Type of model

Relative permittivity

Conductiv
ity [S/m]

Muscle

57.088

0.79759

Fat

5.5777

0.41199

Skin

46.672

0.6902

For any bio-implantable antenna design first we need to

design for free space conditions to avoid complications and
then try to add different body models. For designing this kind
of antennas we need to consider different body models. The
proposed antenna is having a length and width of 19.5 mm and
10 mm respectively. This antenna is wrapped around a
substrate having a radius of 3.5 mm and height 15 mm
respectively. The return loss curve is shown in fig 4 in free

Fig. 5 Return loss curve of the antenna after placing it in a Muscle model

This antenna which is surrounded by muscle model is

having a bandwidth of 210 MHZ (307 MHZ-517 MHZ) at 400
MHZ and 283 MHZ(919 MHZ-1202 MHZ) at 1 GHZ
frequency.

The antenna is now surrounded by typical body models.

i.e., placing muscle, fat and skin models at a time which is one
of the worst case scenario. The antenna is surrounded by a
Muscle model having a thickness of 50 mm, Fat model having
a thickness of 5 mm and Skin model having a thickness of 5
mm. This configuration is having a return loss of -20 dB at
400 MHZ frequency. This setup having a bandwidth of 233
MHZ (311 MHZ-544 MHZ) and 337 MHZ (861 MHZ-1198
MHZ) at 1GHZ frequency. The return loss curve is shown in
Fig 6.

Fig.7 Radiation pattern of a proposed antenna

Fig. 6 Return loss curve of the antenna after placing it Muscle, Fat and
Skin Model.

The Complicated model design and the Muscle model

design is not showing any much difference. There is only 23
MHZ shift in the operating frequency. The shift is due to
changes in the dielectric constant values of different body
models.
Radiation pattern is shown in Fig.7 having a radiation
efficiency -34.13 dBi which is for muscle model. Radiation
efficiency of a complicated model is -33 dBi which is slightly
higher than the above. This is due to the addition of fat and
muscle layers which are having low thickness compared to
Muscle layer. This antenna is showing the omnidirectional
characteristic properties by radiating in all the directions.
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR):
It indicates the rate of energy deposited per unit mass of
the tissue. Generally it should be as low as possible. The
antennas which are designed for brain applications should
have low SAR values compared to that of body applications.
The proposed antenna having SAR of 428 W/Kg for 1 Watt
input power. So, we can give up to 3.7 milli watts. SAR curve
as shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 8 SAR curve.

In bioimplantable antennas antenna size is main criteria.

So, Instead of incresing the physical length we will increase
the electrical length to reduce the antenna size. The proposed
antenna achieved 25% reduction in the antenna size compared
to [2] and [3].
The proposed antenna covering 2 bands at 401 MHZ-406
MHZ and 433 MHZ-434.8 MHZ with the muscle model,
whereas with the complicated model we are able to cover 3
frequency bands at 401 MHZ-406 MHZ ,433 MHZ-434.8
MHZ and 902 MHZ-908 MHZ. This complicated model is
more realistic and suitable for practical applications.

IV CONCLUSIONS
The proposed antenna is a flexible symmetrical loop
antenna which is in cylindrical shape having a radius of 3.6
mm and height of 15 mm. The antenna is having enormous
bandwidth so, we can achieve more data rates. The proposed
antenna surrounded by a muscle model resonates in the Med
Radio band (402 MHZ-406 MHZ) and ISM Bands (433 MHZ434.8 MHZ) having a VSWR<2. Next, the antenna is surround
by complex body model (i.e., Muscle, Fat, Skin models). This
resonates at in the Med Radio band (402 MHZ-406 MHZ) and
ISM Band (433 MHZ-434.8 MHZ). In addition to these two
bands it is resonating at one more band between 902 MHZ908 MHZ where we are getting a VSWR<2. It is giving a
radiation efficiency of -34.13 dBi with muscle model, whereas
with complex model the obtained radiation efficiency is -33
dBi. This difference is due to the addition of small Fat and
Skin layers. Even though we added two different layers to the
muscle model which are having different relative permittivity
values, there is only 23 MHZ frequency shift which is due to
the permittivity change. This frequency shift will not much
affect the antenna performance. This model much related to
the real time body model. So, we can use for practical
applications. It is having a SAR of 428 W/Kg with 1 watt
input power. In order to get below 1.6 W/Kg SAR we can give
up to 3.7 milli watts input power which is very low. There is
25% reduction in the size in proposed antenna compared to
[2]. This is a omnidirectional antenna. So, we can place it in
any direction in the body.

V REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]
[8]
[9]

[10]

Asimina Kiourti,Konstantina S. Nikita, A Review of

Implantable Patch Antennas for Biomedical Telemetry:
Challenges and Solutions, IEEE Antennas and
Propagation Magazine,Vol. 54, No. 3, June 2012.
Rula Alrawashdeh, Yi Huang and Ping Cao, A
Conformal U-shaped Loop Antenna for Biomedical
Applications, 7th European Conference on Antennas and
Propagation (EuCAP), 2013.
Rula Alrawashdeh, Yi Huang, Ping Cao, Eng Lim, A
New Small Conformal Antenna for Capsule Endoscopy,
7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation
(EUCAP), 2013.
Rula Alrawashdeh, Yi Huang and Aznida Abu Bakar
Sajak, A Flexible Loop Antenna for Biomedical Bone
Implants, 8th European Conference on Antennas and
Propagation (EUCAP), 2014.
Anja K. Skrivervik, Francesco Merli Design Strategies
for Implantable Antennas, Loughborough Antennas &
Propagation Conference, 2011.
W. Xia, K. Saito, M. Takahashi and K. Ito,
"Performances of an implanted cavity slot antenna
embedded in the human arm," IEEE Transactions on
Antennas and Propagations, vol. 57, no. 4, pp. 894-899,
April 2009.
Calculation of the dielectric properties of body tissues.
[online]. Available: http://niremf.ifac.cnr.it/tissprop/.
D. F. Williams, The Williams Dictionary of
Biomaterials,Liverpool University Press, 1999.
IEEE Standard for Safety Levels with Respect to Human
Exposure to RadioFrequency Ele-ctromagnetic Fields, 3
kHz to 300 GHz, IEEE Standard C95.1-1999,1999.
Miguel Rodriguez, Cynthia Furse and Rob Franklin,
Considerations
for
Implantable
Manufacturing
Antennas, 978-1-4673-5317-5,2013.