The biocompatibility of millimeter-wave devices and systems is an important issue due to the wide number of emerging body-centric wireless applications at millimeter waves. This review article provides the state of knowledge in this field and mainly focuses on recent results and advances related to the different aspects of millimeter-wave interactions with the human body. Electromagnetic, thermal, and biological aspects are considered and analyzed for exposures in the 30-100 GHz range with a particular emphasis on the 60-GHz band. Recently introduced dosimetric techniques and specific instrumentation for bioelectromagnetic laboratory studies are also presented. Finally, future trends are discussed.

Progress in implantable and ingestible wireless biotelemetry requires versatile and efficient antennas to communicate reliably from a body. We propose an ultraminiature 434 MHz antenna immune to impedance detuning caused by varying electromagnetic properties of the surrounding biological environment. It is designed for a standard input impedance of 50 Ω. The antenna is synthesized and miniaturized using a hybrid analytical-numerical approach, and then optimized to conform to the inner surface of a 17 mm long biocompatible encapsulation (7 mm diameter). The substrate is 50 μm thick. The capsule antenna is analyzed both in simplified and anatomically realistic heterogeneous phantoms. It remains matched at common implantation sites and through the whole gastrointestinal tract. Enhanced robustness allows using the antenna for a wide range of in-body applications. Computed reflection coefficients and radiation performance both show good agreement with measurements. The far field is characterized with the direct illumination technique using an analog fiber optic link. The realized gain (measured max. value -19.6 dBi) exceeds the counterparts by about 3 dBi. The proposed antenna contributes to the further development of a new generation of miniature in-body devices that involve complex and dense integration of sensors, logic, and power source.

The paper presents the design and fabrication of a low-cost and easy-to-fabricate laser-induced graphene sensor together with its implementation for multi-sensing applications. Laser-irradiation of commercial polymer film was applied for photo-thermal generation of graphene. The graphene patterned in an interdigitated shape was transferred onto Kapton sticky tape to form the electrodes of a capacitive sensor. The functionality of the sensor was validated by employing them in electrochemical and strain-sensing scenarios. Impedance spectroscopy was applied to investigate the response of the sensor. For the electrochemical sensing, different concentrations of sodium sulfate were prepared, and the fabricated sensor was used to detect the concentration differences. For the strain sensing, the sensor was deployed for monitoring of human joint movements and tactile sensing. The promising sensing results validating the applicability of the fabricated sensor for multiple sensing purposes are presented.

Wireless in-body bioelectronics offer powerful biosensing and therapeutic capabilities. Efficient and robust in-body antenna designs are required to ensure a reliable through-body link, increase data rates, and reduce power budgets. This study proposes and demonstrates a pattern- and frequency-reconfigurable capsule-conformal antenna array that responds to the challenges of next-generation in-body bioelectronics. The array comprises two mirrored dual-band elements operating at 434 MHz and 2.45 GHz ISM bands. Tissue-matched dielectric loading of the array improves the radiation efficiency and ensures quasi tissue-independent operation for both bands. Due to the full ground plane, the antenna is shielded from the capsule payload. The achieved efficiencies are compared to the fundamental limitations and closely approach them. The realized gains are −28.9 and −18.6 dBi at 434 MHz and 2.45 GHz, respectively, when the array is placed in the center of a ø100-mm diameter spherical phantom with muscle-equivalent properties. Using a single switch, the array can be reconfigured to adjust the angular position of the nulls in the radiation pattern in both bands thereby enabling synthesis of an effectively null-free omnidirectional pattern. The array prototypes are fabricated, and the impedance and far-field radiation patterns are characterized to validate the design in tissue-equivalent liquid phantoms.

Millimeter (mm)-wave imaging has been recently proposed as a new technique for breast cancer detection, based on the significant dielectric contrast between healthy and tumor tissues. Here we propose a procedure to fabricate, electromagnetically characterize and preserve realistic breast tissue-mimicking phantoms for testing mm-wave imaging prototypes. Low-cost, non-toxic and easy-to-produce mixtures made of sunflower oil, water and gelatin were prepared and their dielectric properties were for the first time measured in the (0.5–50) GHz frequency range using a coaxial probe kit. Different oil and gelatin percentages were tested. An alternative recipe based on a waste-oil hardener was also proposed. Finally, water and sunflower oil were investigated as preservation media. The mixtures electromagnetic properties were in good agreement with those of human breast ex vivo samples. By changing the ingredient concentrations or using different solidifying agents it was possible to mimic different tissue types. Besides, we show that sunflower oil represents an effective preservation medium for the developed materials. The first breast phantom mimicking a tumor mass into healthy tissues up to 50 GHz was also successfully fabricated. Results demonstrated the potential of the designed recipes to mimic breast tissues with different biological characteristics, preserving dielectric properties over time. Thus, this study represents a fundamental step towards the development of heterogeneous breast phantoms able to mimic the electromagnetic behavior of healthy and tumor tissues for mm-wave imaging applications.

A conformal antenna with electronically tuning capability of its radiation pattern between broadside and monopole-like patterns is proposed. The antenna is based on a proximity-fed circular patch, loaded with a ring patch and four rectangular slots. The design is planar without any use of rigid shorting posts or a complex feeding network. The reconfigurability is achieved by activating and deactivating the slots using p-i-n diodes to switch between TM ₀₂ (monopole-like mode) and perturbed TM ₀₂ distributions (broadside mode) of the antenna. For conformability, the antenna is fabricated using a highly flexible PDMS-conductive fabric composite. All the antenna parts, including the RF switches, wires, and dc biasing circuit, are fully encapsulated by PDMS to provide resilience against deformation and harsh environment. Investigations on the RF performance and mechanical stability of the antenna were conducted. Under various bendings, it was demonstrated that all the antenna components, including those for electronic switching, remained intact and in working order even under the radius bending of 40 mm, thus maintaining good pattern reconfigurability and overall performance. When bent, the measured results at 5.2 GHz show a stable radiation performance relative to those of the flat case (i.e., the maximum gain of 2.9 dBi and the efficiency of 64% in the broadside mode, corresponding to 1.75 dBi and 52% in the monopole-like mode). To the best of our knowledge, all these features have never been demonstrated in previously published pattern reconfigurable antennas.