A Preliminary Study of RF Propagation for High Data Rate Brain Telemetry

This paper presents the preliminary results of a study on the radio frequency (RF) propagation inside the human skull at several Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) and ultrawideband UWB frequencies. These frequency bands are considered as possible candidates for high data rate wireless brain telemetry. The study is conducted using a high-resolution 3D computational model of the human head. Power flow analysis is conducted to visualize propagation inside the brain for two different on-body antenna locations. Furthermore, channel attenuation between an on-body directional mini-horn antenna and an implant antenna at different depths inside the brain is evaluated. It is observed that radio frequency propagation at 914 MHz sufficiently covers the whole volume of the brain. The coverage reduces at higher frequencies, specially above 3.1 GHz. The objective of this comparative analysis is to provide some insight on the applicability of these frequencies for high data rate brain telemetry or various monitoring, and diagnostic tools.