Preliminary Characterization of Capacitive Intrabody Communication Channel under Implantable-Like Conditions

In intrabody communication (IBC) conductive properties of the human body are exploited for establishing communication between devices on, in, or very near the human body. Usually, galvanic coupling is used for establishing communication with implanted devices, and capacitive coupling for communication with the devices on or very close to the skin. It was shown recently that capacitive IBC electrodes can be used for establishing communication with implanted devices as well, and first implantable capacitive IBC channel investigations were performed on human body phantoms, animal tissue, and by numerical simulations. In this paper, we present the first in vivo measurements of in-body to on-body capacitive IBC channel emulated by body-worn electrodes and compare it to an equivalent on-body to on-body IBC link. In-body to on-body channel was realized placing transmitter electrodes under the armpit and taking different body positions, while covering transmitter electrodes with tissue. Measurements of transmission characteristics were performed in the frequency range between 100 kHz and 100 MHz using a network analyzer and a pair of symmetrical balun transformers.