Biomedical Applications of

AntennasGunjan Gupta – 10BEC112

Pratik Bhanawat- 10BEC113

Department of Electronics and CommunicationsInstitute of Technology

Nirma University

Body area network (BAN)• Human body as a transmission channel

Figure 1: Transmission system using the human body as a transmission channel [2]Figure 2: Electric field stream line model of PAN [2]

Body area network (BAN)• The content of a BAN or PAN contains a range of communications

needs and requirements. These can be classified as:• Off-body• On-body• In-body

Antenna Body Area Networks

Figure 3: Radiation Pattern for Antenna Propagation [3]Figure 4: Human Body conduction [3]

Challenges of Antenna Body Area Networks• Power• Absorption (SAR): specific allowances of radiation• Signal integrity• Body is a lossy, complex medium for signal propagation• Distortion of radiation pattern close to human?

Wireless PANs in Medical Applications• Aim• Creation of a patient-centred RF hub that can receive vital signs from patients,

concentrate them and send them to a base station in a relatively short range via a wireless personal area network (WPAN)

• Use of WPANs • Connecting to a higher level network and the Internet (uplink) and even for

wireless communication among the ECG sensors themselves (intrapersonal communication)

Wireless PANs in Medical ApplicationsThe criteria that are mostly considered for the selection of the most appropriate and efficient protocol in this area are:• Data rate• Range• Low battery power requirement• Safety and reliability• Security• Data Latency

Fig 5 : An instrument for Biomedical Applications [3]

Non-Invasive Method Investigation for Blood Pressure Measurements• Cuff• Accurate• Non-continuous monitoring• Discomfort from pressure

Non-Invasive Method Investigation for Blood Pressure Measurements• Arterial tonometer• Applies constant pressure on

artery at the wrist• Constant pressure creates

discomfort

Challenges of coughless methods• Pulse Transit Time method (PTT)• Detect PTT• Pulse Oximeter• Impedance sensor• Issues with impedance detection

Liquid Antennas for Bio-monitoring Applications

References1. Effect of Earth Ground and Environment on Body-Centric

Communications in the MHz Band Katsuyuki Fujii and Yasuyuki Okumura 2. K. Fujii, M. Takahashi, and K. Ito, “Electric field distributions of wearable

devices using the human body as a transmission channel,” IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 2080–2087, 2007

3. ATHENA Research Group-Biomedical Application – Georgia Institute of Technology

4. Book: Antennas and Propagation for Body-Centric Wireless Communications Second Edition Peter S. Hall Yang Hao

Thank You !