Capacitive Coupling for RFID-based Wireless Transcranial Link for Patient-Centric Medicine

The estimated incidence of brain tumors has increased significantly in the last 20 years for all ages. The periodic follow-up, after medical treatments, comprises expensive and invasive methods to monitor and detect the tumor recurrence. In this scenario, a telemedicine paradigm based on remote and noninvasive monitoring could improve the safety and comfort of the patient. Hence, this paper proposes a wireless transcranial link to monitor brain biophysics parameters by means of capacitive coupling between coaxial curvilinear plates in the RFID-UHF band. The compact layout of the implanted antenna permits to host in the central region additional sensors without increasing the overall footprint. Numerical simulations and a preliminary experiment demonstrate that a reliable battery-free communication link can be achieved with just 2.7 mW.