The importance of antenna near-field losses in intra-body UHF communication applications

The gain of the intra-body propagation channel between tissue implanted antennas is largely dependent on the lossy tissue structures on the direct path between the nodes. Nonetheless, intra-body link performance may be improved through careful antenna design to minimize the near-field losses which are doubly important in this application. In an initial study we consider the effect of insulation on an implanted dipole antenna at the MedRadio band (2.36–2.40 GHz) and placed within a muscle tissue phantom. Simulated electric field and radiation efficiency results are discussed for the single antenna case.