Performance measures of implant antennas

Modern electronic medical implants have reached a high degree of complexity. This has increased the demands on the communication link with the implant, both regarding the bandwidth and the communication distance. A medical communication system at RF frequencies has been standardised, the Medical Implant Communication System (MICS), which use a frequency allocation of 402 ¿ 405 MHz. This frequency band is allocated for implant use both and the US and in the EU. The EIRP is limited to ¿16 dBm in order to reduce the interference to existing users of the same frequency band. This low EIRP makes it necessary to have reasonable effective antennas in the implants in order to get a benefit form the switch from the classical inductive link to RF.