Anthropomorphic Torso Phantoms and Validation of Their Physical and Digital Twins for Body-Area Radio-Communication Applications

Artificial phantoms play an important role in the development of body-area radio-communication devices and networks. This work aims to design, fabricate and validate physical anthropomorphic phantoms (PAP) of torso with their complementary digital twin models (DTM) emulating the anatomical and dielectric properties of the human body. Two PAPs—an obese lower abdomen and an athletic upper thorax—were designed and fabricated, with their DTMs. These PAPs cover both the ends of adult human body type spectrum. The heterogeneous phantoms consist of layers representing: skin, fat, muscle, rib cage, spinal column, and internal organ, fabricated using semi-solid, low water content materials. The phantoms were validated by comparing their dielectric properties with the IFAC database. The PAPs and DTMs were analyzed for the performance and safety of implantable/on-body radio-communication devices by measuring the values of reflection coefficient (S₁₁) and simulating specific absorption rate (SAR). The results obtained are: 1) strong agreement of tissue layers’ dielectric properties with the IFAC database over 0.5–10 GHz frequency range; 2) dielectric, physical, and mechanical stability for at least 16 months after fabrication; 3) (re)usability and implantability of the developed PAPs for communication studies on the performance and safety of implantable/on-body devices; 4) reliability of developed DTMs for SAR analysis of implantable and on-body devices.