A Compact Wide Band Implantable Antenna for

Biotelemetry
Naeem Abbas, Bilal Manzoor, Muhammad Yousaf, Muhammad Zahid, Zubair Bashir, Adeel Akram, and Yasar Amin
Department of Telecommunication, University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Taxila, 47050 Pakistan.
{naeem.hsn.1@gmail.com, rajabilal5458@gmail.com, myousafalamgir@yahoo.com, zahidnazir11760@gmail.com, zubairbashir9293@gmail.com,
adeel.akram@uettaxila.edu.pk, and yasar.amin@uettaxila.edu.pk}

Abstract—In this paper, a miniaturized implantable antenna X-axis X-axis

for the biotelemetry has been designed. The proposed antenna
1 1 5.5
is operating at industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) (2.45 1
GHz) band. The miniaturization of the antenna is achieved by 0.8
using a shorting pin (Via), circular slots in radiator, and open-
ended rectangular and polygon-shaped slots in the ground. The
dimensions of the designed antenna are (7×7×0.2) mm3 . The
Rogers ULTRALAM (tanδ= 0.0025, εr = 2.9) is used as a dielectric (a) (b)
0.3 2
material for superstrate and substrate . The proposed antenna is
placed in the homogeneous skin phantom to measure the results.
(0,2.98)
The gain and bandwidth of this single band implantable antenna
are -15 dBi, and 420 MHz, respectively. The performance of the
antenna is better than previous work. Feed
Index Terms—Implantable antenna, biomedical application, Superstrate
ISM band, reflection coefficient, bandwidth, gain.
Patch
Superstrate(0.1mm) Patch
I. I NTRODUCTION (c) Substrate(0.1mm) (d)
The implantable medical devices (IMDs) have gained the Feed Ground
Via Ground
attention of the researchers due to biomedical applications. Via Substrate
The IMDs are used to monitor the human health condition
such as cardiac rate, temperature, glucose level monitoring,
and blood pressure [1]. The implantable antenna is the main Fig. 1. Footprint of the proposed antenna (a) Radiating patch (b) Ground
component of IMDs. The primary function of the implantable plane (c) Side View (d) Exploded View (Unit=mm)
antennas is to create wireless link between the implanted
device and the exterior device [2]. The implantable antennas
are facing various issues such as size reduction, flexibility, proposed antenna is 97 MHz, but the antenna size was large
operating frequency, and patient safety [3]. Due to the (285.7 mm3 ). A circularly polarised implantable antenna was
accuracy in monitoring the human health, and the safety of desigend for wireless power transmission operating at ISM
the patient will be a reality in near future. band [8]. The Rogers 3010 dielectric material was used as
substrate. The designed antenna had the bandwidth of 35
The IMDs use the different frequency bands like MedRadio MHz. The size of this antenna was large with a volume of
(401-406 MHz) band for biomedical application. The 153.67 mm3 . A circularly polarised antenna was designed to
industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) (2.40 – 2.4835 GHz monitor glucose level [9]. The size of the proposed antenna
and 902 – 928 MHz) bands vary from country to country [4]. was small with volume of 91.75 mm3 , but the proposed
The ISM bands have high data rate over MedRadio band. The antenna has low gain and the smaller bandwidth. A flexible
ISM band act as a switch between the wake-up mode and dipole slot antenna is designed in [10]. The antenna was
sleep mode, which increases the life of the medical device. operating in ISM band. The gain of this antenna design was
Therefore, ISM band is preferred over MedRadio band -23.98 dBi. Although the gain of this antenna was large, the
[5]. To design the implantable antennas, the techniques are antenna has smaller bandwidth and larger size with a volume
explained in [6]. In past few years, researchers have designed of (22.5 × 18.5 × 1.9) mm3 .
many implantable antennas for biomedical applications. A
circularly polarized (CP) implantable antenna operating in In [11], a circularly polarized implantable antenna was
MedRadio band was designed [7]. The bandwidth of the designed for the biotelemetry. The CP implantable antenna
978-1-7281-2435-3/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE has high gain and larger bandwidth, but the size of this
 100mm

Radiation Box

Skin Box
Step 1 Step 2
25mm
100mm

25mm

Antenna
Step 3

Fig. 3. Steps to design the proposed antenna

Fig. 2. Simulation setup for the proposed antenna.

antenna was large (40 × 40 × 0.635) mm3 . Similarly, a
single-band implantable antenna operating in ISM band [12].
However, the single band implantable antenna has larger
size and complex geometry. The peak gain of -30 dBi of
the antenna was low at ISM band. A small size implantable
antenna was proposed in [13] of volume of 285.7 mm3 . The
peak gain of the small size implantable antenna was -27 dBi,
and the simulated bandwidth was 97 MHz at ISM band. The
antennas mentioned above have some limitations and some
antennas were not compatible with the electronic devices.
In this paper, an implantable antenna is presented for
the biomedical applications. The volume of this antenna is
(7×7×0.2) mm3 . The antenna has the smallest size compared
to the other antennas stated in the literature. The proposed
antenna is implanted in a homogeneous skin phantom with a
volume of 25 mm × 25 mm × 25 mm at 2.45 GHz band.
The simulated bandwidth of this antenna is 420 MHz (2.10 –
2.55 GHz), and the peak gain is -15 dBi at ISM band. The
article is divided in the following sections. Section I consist
of an introduction and literature review. In section II, the
methodology to design the antenna has been discussed. And
in section III, results and conclusion are carried out.
II. M ETHODOLOGY
A wide band implantable antenna is designed for biomedical
applications. The proposed antenna is operating at ISM band,
as dielectric material for substrate and superstrate. Both, the
substrate and superstrate have the same thickness of 0.1 mm.
The Roger ULTRALAM is a high dielectric material and is
a type of liquid crystalline polymer (LCP). The LCPs are used
to manufacture the semiconductors and electronic devices.
The LCP materials are usefull for the implantable antennas
due to their flexibility and bio-compatibility [14]. A coaxial
feed of 50 Ω is used to excite the antenna. The antenna’s
miniaturization is achieved by using the shorting pins (Via).
The shorting pin is placed at different location on the ground
plane to get the required results. The diameters of the feed and
shorting pin are 0.5 mm and 0.3 mm. The dimensions of the
designed antenna are (7mm × 7mm × 0.2mm). The dimensions
are chosen to reduce the fringing effect. The height width ratio
equation is given as
W
∆L (r + 0.3) × ( + 0.264)
= 0.412 × h (1)
h W
(r − 0.258) × ( + 0.8)
h
Where L is length width, W is width, and h height of
substrate. The rectangular and circular slots in the ground
plane and radiating patch affect the bandwidth of the proposed
antenna.
0
-5

and the total bandwidth covered by the proposed antenna -10

is 420 MHz. While designing the antenna, some sorts of
𝑺𝟏𝟏 (dB)

-15
challenges munt be considered..
Step 1
-20
A. Geometry Step 2
-25
Fig. 1(a–b) show the radiating patch and ground plane, Step 3

respectively. Fig. 1(c–d) shows the side and exploded view, -30
1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9
repectively. The antenna have a ground plane with some Frequency (GHz)
slots of different shapes, Shorting pin (Via), superstrate and
substrate and a radiating patch having circular shape. The Fig. 4. Reflection coefficients of three designing Steps (S11 ).
Roger ULTRALAM (tan δ = 0.0025 and εr = 2.9) is used
B. Simulation and Measurement Environment
The analysis of the designed antenna is done by placing it in
HSP having the dimensions of 25mm × 25mm × 25mm. The
antenna is designed in three successive steps as shown in Fig.
3. The ground plane of the designed antenna has polygon and a
rectangular shaped slots. Different circular slots are created in
the patch for better performance. Fig. 4, shows the difference
between reflection coefficients of three stages/steps. It can be
seen from Fig. 4 that the step by step modification to design the
resonant frequency moves to the upper ISM band and required
ISM is not covered by this length. At W=0.3 mm, the designed
is covering the ISM band. At this value, the bandwidth of the
proposed antenna is 420 MHz (2.55 – 2.13) GHz.
0
-5
-10

𝑺𝟏𝟏 (dB)
antenna improves the performance of the antenna. In the first -15
two steps, the results of the proposed antenna show that the W=0.15 W
-20
antenna does not cover the ISM (2.40 – 2.4853 GHz) band. In W=0.2
the third step, it is shown that the antenna covers the ISM band. -25
W=0.3
The maximum gain is -15 dBi, and the simulated bandwidth -30
is 420 MHz of the proposed antenna. 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Frequency (GHz)

C. Parametric Analysis
The analysis of the different parametrs is the important to Fig. 6. Comparison of the reflection coefficient (S11 ) values effected by
changing the width (W) of the circular slot in radiator.
design the antenna. The parametric analysis helps to adopt
the best dimension. For the parametric analysis same HSP is
used as in Fig. 2. The dimensions and dielectric properties
of HSP are same utilized for parametric analysiz. Two basic III. R ESULTS
parameter, length of rectangular slot in ground and width of the
The designed antenna initially analyzed in High Frequency
circular slot in the radiating patch are examined. After doing
Structure Simulator (HFSS). Designed antenna is simulated in
parametric analysis it has proven that the selected parameters
different phantoms of human body to examine the performance
are usefull to design the antenna.
using HFSS. The conductivity, and relative permittivity of
1) Variation in the length (L) of rectangular slot in the
different phantoms that are used to simulate the antenna are
ground plane: Fig. 5 shows the reflection coefficient effected
given in Table I. This antenna is simulated in stomach, skin,
by changing the length of rectangular slot. The length L varies
and bronchi. The size of the homogeneous phantom remains
from 4mm to 5.5mm. At small values of the ‘L’ the resonant
same for the simulation of antenna in different phantoms. The
frequency moves to the lower ISM band, and the antenna
simulated results of the phantoms are shown in Fig. 7.
does not cover ISM band. By increasing the value of ‘L’
the resonant frequency moves to the upper ISM band. At L=
5.5mm, the proposed antenna is covering the ISM band and TABLE I
R ELATIVE P ERMITTIVITY AND C ONDUCTIVITY OF THE H UMAN B ODY
the required result are achieved. P HANTOMS

0 Phantom Skin Stomach Bronchi

Relative Permittivity () 38 62.2 39.7
-5 Electrical Conductivity (S/m) 1.46 2.21 1.45

-10
𝑺𝟏𝟏 (dB)

The simulated gain of the antenna in different human body

L
-15 phantoms is shown in Fig. 8. The maximum gain is -15 dBi
L=4
L=4.5
simulated in skin, and in the stomach phantoms. The gain
-20
L=5 in the bronchi phantom is smaller than the other phantoms.
L=5.5 The current distribution in ground and patch is shown in Fig.
-25
1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9 9. The current distribution is measured by Jsurf vector. It is
Frequency (GHz)
evident from the Fig. 9, that current distribution is greater in
the bottom and on the right side of radiating patch. Similarly,
Fig. 5. Comparison of the reflection coefficient (S11 ) values effected by
changing the length of a rectangular slot in the ground plane.
the current distribution in ground plane is greater on the lower
and right side.
2) Variation in the width (W) of the circular slot in the 3) Comparison with previous work: The comparison be-
patch: Fig. 6 shows the effects of width (W) of the slots in tween this proposed antenna and previous work is shown in
radiator on reflection coefficient. The width (W) of the circular the table II. It is clear form the table that this antenna is
slot varies from (0.15 – 0.3) mm. At W=0.15 mm, the resonant better than other antenna in term of size, gain, and bandwidth.
frequency moves to the lower ISM band, and does not covers The miniaturization of the antenna is achieved by using the
the required ISM (2.40–2.4853 GHz) band. At W=0.2 mm, the dielectric material with smaller thickness.
 TABLE II
C OMPARISON OF THE DESIGNED ANTENNA WITH PREVIOUS WORK

References Frequency (GHz) Bandwidth (MHz) Gain (dBi) Dielectric Material Antenna Shape Volume (mm3 )
[2] 2.4 80 -10.3 Rogers TM 13 Zig Zag 66.41
[13] 2.45 300 -17 Rogers 3210 Circular 91.75
[14] 2.45 246 -21.2 Rogers RT/duroid 6010 Spiral 31.5
[15] 2.45 105 -22.3 Rogers RT/duroid 6010 Zig Zag 52.5
[16] 0.928 184.1 -28.74 Rogers Flower 10.08
2.45 219.7 -25.65 Ultralam Shape
Proposed Work 2.45 420 -15 Rogers Ultralam 3850HT Circular 9.8

gain and bandwidth of the antenna are -15 dBi, and 420
MHz (2.55 – 2.13 GHz), repetitively. As compared to the
previous work, this proposed antenna had better performance
in terms of volume, gain, size, and bandwidth. This designed
antenna might be used for many application, such as capsule
endoscopy,skin implantation, and biotelemetry.

(a) (b)
(c)
Fig. 7. Simulated gain in different phantoms (a) skin (b) Stomach (c) Bronchi
1 15, 2014.
0.5
0 System for Implantable Medical Devices,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp.
(a) (b)
Fig. 8. Current distribution (a) Radiating patch (b) Ground plane (Unit=A/m)
IV. C ONCLUSION
A single wide band implantable antenna was designed
for the biomedical applications in this paper. A circularly
slotted radiating patch, and a ground plane having open ended
rectangular slots were designed for miniaturization. A shorting
pin (Via) was used for tuning the resonant frequency. The
antenna was simulated in the different phantoms such as skin,
stomach, and bronchi. The volume of this antenna was 9.8
mm3 . The proposed antenna was operated at ISM band. The
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