Review on Medical Implantable Antenna Technology and Imminent Research Challenges.

Md Mohiuddin Soliman,Yazan Qiblawey,Erfan Zal Nezhad,Amith Khandakar,Farayi Musharavati,Mohammad Tariqul Islam,Muhammad E H Chowdhury

doi:10.3390/s21093163

Abstract

Implantable antennas are mandatory to transfer data from implants to the external world wirelessly. Smart implants can be used to monitor and diagnose the medical conditions of the patient. The dispersion of the dielectric constant of the tissues and variability of organ structures of the human body absorb most of the antenna radiation. Consequently, implanting an antenna inside the human body is a very challenging task. The design of the antenna is required to fulfill several conditions, such as miniaturization of the antenna dimension, biocompatibility, the satisfaction of the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), and efficient radiation characteristics. The asymmetric hostile human body environment makes implant antenna technology even more challenging. This paper aims to summarize the recent implantable antenna technologies for medical applications and highlight the major research challenges. Also, it highlights the required technology and the frequency band, and the factors that can affect the radio frequency propagation through human body tissue. It includes a demonstration of a parametric literature investigation of the implantable antennas developed. Furthermore, fabrication and implantation methods of the antenna inside the human body are summarized elaborately. This extensive summary of the medical implantable antenna technology will help in understanding the prospects and challenges of this technology.

Highlights

IntroductionSignificant progress has been observed over decades in medical applications with the development of modern technology
This section is divided into two sub-sections, where in the first sub-section, different antenna design techniques are discussed and in the second sub-sections, applications of implant antenna for different wireless applications are discussed
The developed implant antenna is categorized based on design aspects, such as miniaturization of antenna dimension, bandwidth enlargement technique, impedance matching stability technique, specific absorption rate (SAR) reduction technique, directivity, increased efficiency, and biocompatibility technique

Summary

Introduction

Significant progress has been observed over decades in medical applications with the development of modern technology. The use of communication tools has brought unimaginable success in the medical sector, which saved millions of people from lifethreatening diseases such as congestive cardiac failure, cancer, and diabetes [1,2,3,4]. The implanted devices were powered and monitored by an external station via wired connectors, which poses a risk and hazard to the human body and requires unavoidable surgical procedures. Implantable antenna technology has reduced the risk and hazard which was associated with surgical procedures and made this suitable for medical applications [5]. Under provisional implant antenna technology, implantable wireless chips are being used to trace people or pets, to collect information from the body to external monitoring devices [6]

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