Comprehensive Survey of Galvanic Coupling and Alternative Intra-Body Communication Technologies

Tomlinson, William J.; Banou, Stella; Yu, Chang; Stojanovic, Milica; Chowdhury, Kaushik R.

doi:10.1109/comst.2018.2879643

Cited by 54 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…For the second case of communication inside the body, several research works have been conducted to evaluate the path loss along and inside the human body using either narrowband radio signals or ultra wide band (UWB) ones. All of them confirmed that the radio signals experience high losses [2], [3] that translate in unwanted tissues heating and energy replenishment for the sensors already implanted. Alternative non-RF techniques are thus required.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…• the proposed architecture shows high flexibility since all the parameters may be changed in the PC control panel, such as the sampling frequency, or in the Matlab programs (for example carrier frequency and modulation order) thus allowing a quick evaluation of the resulting effects; • the testbed, although simple, implements specific PHY methods, including frequency, phase and time recovery, able to achieve almost error free intra-body communication, while existing test systems only obtain a bit error rate (BER) in the range of 10 −3 and 10 −6 [3], [8], [9]; • extensive experimental tests are conducted with a real chicken tissue in different environmental conditions. The significance of this experimental study is that we are able to achieve almost error free communication, mainly due to the developed carrier frequency recovery scheme, that translates in a robust and reliable communication, a valuable result in medical applications [11].…”

Section: B Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, it has been employed for IBC since the human body consists of 65% water [12]. Works on ultrasound communication have shown that the propagation loss in the body is much lower than of RF communications thus resulting in a promising IBC technique [3].…”

Section: A Alternative Non-rf Ibc Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Capacitive coupling is based on two circuits that share the same electric field and cause a flow of energy from one circuit to the other one [3]. CC in intra-body uses a couple of electrodes at the transmitter and receiver, respectively, where only one of the electrodes at each side is attached to the body, while the other one is floating (ground electrode needs to be only in proximity) [1].…”

Section: A Alternative Non-rf Ibc Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CC in intra-body uses a couple of electrodes at the transmitter and receiver, respectively, where only one of the electrodes at each side is attached to the body, while the other one is floating (ground electrode needs to be only in proximity) [1]. The body behaves as a conductor of the electric potential and the external ground acts as a return path for the signal [3]. In this way, the path loss highly depends on the environmental conditions, which is the main CC drawback, that however is able to achieve long distance inside the body [3], a valuable feature for IBC.…”

Section: A Alternative Non-rf Ibc Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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PHY Design and Implementation of a Galvanic Coupling Testbed for Intra-Body Communication Links

et al. 2020

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Intra-body communication (IBC) is a novel key research area that will foster personalized medicine by allowing in situ and real time monitoring in daily life. In this work, the energy efficient galvanic coupling (GC) technology is used to send data through intra-body links. A novel sound card-based GC testbed is designed and implemented, whose main features are: (i) low equipment requirements since it only employs two ordinary PCs with sound card support and Matlab software, (ii) high flexibility since all the parameters setting may be easily modified through the PC control panel and Matlab programs, (iii) real time physiological data transmissions, and (iv) almost error free communication by developing specific physical (PHY) layer techniques, which are implemented and tested with a real chicken tissue in the experimental evaluation. A signal to noise ratio (SNR) calculation is also proposed with the twofold purpose to be used for frequency offset compensation and as metric to evaluate the proposed architecture. The developed GC testbed may be easily replicated by the interested research community to carry out simulation-based experiments, thus fostering new research in this field. Moreover, the Matlab source code of the proposed GC transceiver is freely available online on Code Ocean.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Section: B Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Alternative Non-rf Ibc Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Alternative Non-rf Ibc Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Alternative Non-rf Ibc Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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PHY Design and Implementation of a Galvanic Coupling Testbed for Intra-Body Communication Links

et al. 2020

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Acoustic Tunable Battery‐Free Implants Based on Sustainable Triboelectric Nanogenerators With Metal‐Polymer Intermixing Layers

Chung,

Yuan,

Wang

et al. 2024

Advanced Energy Materials

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Ultrasound‐driven triboelectric nanogenerators (US‐TENGs) offer an innovative solution for transcutaneous power transfer, with the potential to enable battery‐free, permanently implantable electronics. However, research to date has primarily demonstrated only fragmentary functionalities for these applications. This work presents the simultaneous transmission of acoustic power and precise acoustic information using a double‐electrode US‐TENG, enabling a battery‐free implant controlled via ultrasound. High and sustained output from a US‐TENG is crucial for operating the versatile system; therefore, a novel triboelectric membrane with a top electrode incorporating a gold‐polymer intermixing layer has been designed. Reversible micro‐cracks form in the intermixing layer, ensuring electrical connectivity under high‐frequency strain. In vivo experiments confirm that the system is biocompatible and can be reliably operated inside living rats. These achievements represent a significant step toward realizing multifunctional implantable electronics that can be reliably powered and controlled by ultrasound.

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Wearable Battery‐Powered Transmitter and Receiver for Path Loss Measurement of Capacitive HBC Channel

Dehaese,

Assila Belhadj Mefteh,

Vauché

et al. 2024

Circuit Theory & Apps

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In capacitive human body communication (HBC), the close environment strongly influences the signal return path. Many studies often overestimate the path loss due to the use of bulky measuring instruments that create parasitic return paths. Additionally, in the few cases where wearable battery‐powered HBC devices are employed, the impact of factors such as inter‐electrode distance, body constitution of the test subject, electrode‐to‐skin contact, and so on, on the power path loss is not consistently examined. In this paper, we present the design of a wearable battery‐powered HBC transmitter and receiver that enable a realistic estimation of the power path loss. We also investigate the impact of inter‐electrode distance, body constitution, posture and pressure of electrode‐skin contact. The transmitted and received voltages are first estimated using a single frequency discrete Fourier transform algorithm. The power path loss is then deduced using preliminary measured impedances of the transmitter–receiver and electrodes. Matching networks on the transmitter and receiver side are added to optimize the power path loss. Measurements indicate that for a 20 cm inter‐electrode distance, the path loss is approximately −37 dB at 21 MHz (IEEE 802.15.6 HBC frequency). Moreover, the inter‐electrode distance significantly impacts path loss, with a variation of over 10 dB measured for distances ranging from 20 to 100 cm. Additionally, body constitution moderately influences path loss, with a variation of less than 4 dB observed across six subjects. Body posture and electrode‐skin contact pressure significantly affect path loss, with measured differences of 4.5 dB between standing and sitting on the floor positions and between strong and soft contact. The impact of modifying the transmission frequency has also been studied, showing a path loss variation of approximatively −3 dB between 42 and 21 MHz.

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Comprehensive Survey of Galvanic Coupling and Alternative Intra-Body Communication Technologies

Cited by 54 publications

References 66 publications

PHY Design and Implementation of a Galvanic Coupling Testbed for Intra-Body Communication Links

PHY Design and Implementation of a Galvanic Coupling Testbed for Intra-Body Communication Links

Acoustic Tunable Battery‐Free Implants Based on Sustainable Triboelectric Nanogenerators With Metal‐Polymer Intermixing Layers

Wearable Battery‐Powered Transmitter and Receiver for Path Loss Measurement of Capacitive HBC Channel

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