Intra-body communication for biomedical sensor networks

Intra-body communication is a novel data transmission method that uses the human body as an electrical channel. The idea is driven by the vision of a cable-free biomedical monitoring system. On-body and implanted sensors monitor the vital functions and transfer data through the human body to a central monitoring unit. Especially for risk patients and long-term applications, such a technology offers more freedom, comfort, and opportunities in clinical monitoring. In this thesis, the human body is characterized as a transmission medium for electrical currents by means of the dielectric properties and the developed electrical models of human tissue. Numerical finite-element simulations are compared to in vivo measurements. For that purpose, a sophisticated measurement hardware has been developed that applies alternating 1 mA peak current in the promising frequency range of 10 kHz to 1 MHz. The individual-specific variations of the transmission characteristics have been investigated in a clinical trial. The subjects’ extra-cellular and intracellular water distribution and skin condition have been identified as the most significant indicators. Overall, the thorax features reasonable transmission characteristics with an averaged attenuation of 55 dB and a typical SNR of 20 dB, while the extremities and joints cause poorer transmissions. Finally, this work proposes transmitter and receiver architectures for intrabody communication. Data transfers of up to 64 kbit/s with BPSK modulation have been achieved through the human body. The first VLSI implementation of a modified SPIHT algorithm offers compression ratios of up to 20:1 for ECG signals still containing all significant details for medical diagnosis. The implementations fulfill all biomedical requirements on galvanic coupling into and within the human body.

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