Wireless Wearables and Implants: A Dosimetry Review

Abstract

Wireless wearable and implantable devices are continuing to grow in popularity, and as this growth occurs, so too does the need to consider the safety of such devices. Wearable and implantable devices require the transmitting and receiving of electromagnetic waves near and through the body, which at high enough exposure levels may damage proximate tissues. The specific absorption rate (SAR) is the quantity commonly used to enumerate exposure levels, and various national and international organizations have defined regulations limiting exposure to ensure safe operation. In this paper, we comprehensively review dosimetric studies reported in the literature up to the year 2019 for wearables and implants. We discuss antenna designs for wearables and implants as they relate to SAR values and field and thermal distributions in tissue, present designs that have made steps to reduce SAR, and then review SAR considerations as they relate to applied devices. As compared with previous review papers, this paper is the first review to focus on dosimetry aspects relative to wearable and implantable devices. Bioelectromagnetics. 2020;41:3–20 © 2019 The Authors. Bioelectromagnetics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Recent Progress in Nanomaterial Enabled Chemical Sensors for Wearable Environmental Monitoring Applications

“…Moreover, BLE still demands high operational power regarding wearable power solutions while the range of RFID and NFC is quite short and require proximity to operate. To overcome these communication-related issues, researchers could explore wireless technologies compatible with wearable applications such as millimeter-wave frequency-based 60 GHz technologies [307][308][309][310] or optical wireless technologies, e.g., LiFi. [311][312][313] The optical communication method uses light in the infrared, visible, and ultraviolet ranges.…”

Journeys in the Age of Smart Cities: Some Fresh Perspectives

“…While this example used fairly traditional wearable devices (e.g., wristwatches), the future beckons more radical types of wearable devices, such as surgically implantable devices that are already being explored (Guido and Kiourti 2020) and which, along with other exciting possibilities, will be discussed in the following section.…”

Eight Shape Electromagnetic Band Gap Structure for Bandwidth Improvement of Wearable Antenna

“…Many organizations including IEEE, ICNIRP, FCC have recommended limits on radiation emitted by these devices to protect public from overexposure to EM fields. According to the guidelines by FCC and ICNIRP, the SAR must be less than 2 W/kg averaged over 10 g and less than 1.6 W/kg averaged over 1 g of human tissue [3][4][5].…”