Design of a LTCC compact implantable broadband antenna for wireless biotelemetry

This work presents the design of a compact implantable broadband antenna for biotelemetry applications. The antenna was designed to operate in the 402–405 MHz frequency band approved for medical implant communication services. The electromagnetic modelling was based on the finite-difference time-domain method. The proposed antenna was tested inside liquid simulating mean body tissue and inside a high-resolution whole-body anatomical model of a human adult male. The optimized antenna design was fabricated and characterized. Antenna return losses and communication path losses were measured. Specific absorption rate distribution was also calculated. The principal significances of the proposed design are, first, the bandwidth enhancement (100 MHz) that takes into account possible detuning and impedance mismatch, and second, the geometry of the antenna that allows embedding of implantable medical devices.