SUMMARYIn this study, we use the deconvolution of a square test stimulus to replace a series of sinusoidal test waveforms with different frequencies to simplify the measurement of human body impedance. The average biological impedance of body parts is evaluated by constructing a frequency response of the equivalent human body system. Only two stainlesssteel electrodes are employed in the measurement and evaluation.
BackgroundIntra-body communication is a new wireless scheme for transmitting signals through the human body. Understanding the transmission characteristics of the human body is therefore becoming increasingly important. Electrostatic-coupling intra-body communication system in a ground-free situation that integrate electronic products that are discretely located on individuals, such as mobile phones, PDAs, wearable computers, and biomedical sensors, are of particular interest.Materials and MethodsThe human body is modeled as a simplified Resistor-Capacitor network. A virtual ground between the transmitter and receiver in the system is represented by a resister-capacitor network. Value of its resistance and capacitance are determined from a system perspective. The system is characterized by using a mathematical unit step function in digital baseband transmission scheme with and without Manchester code. As a result, the signal-to-noise and to-intersymbol-interference ratios are improved by manipulating the load resistor. The data transmission rate of the system is optimized. A battery-powered transmitter and receiver are developed to validate the proposal.ResultsA ground-free system fade signal energy especially for a low-frequency signal limited system transmission rate. The system transmission rate is maximized by simply manipulating the load resistor. Experimental results demonstrate that for a load resistance of 10k−50k Ω, the high-pass 3 dB frequency of the band-pass channel is 400kHz−2MHz in the worst-case scenario. The system allows a Manchester-coded baseband signal to be transmitted at speeds of up to 20M bit per second with signal-to-noise and signal-to-intersymbol-interference ratio of more than 10 dB.ConclusionThe human body can function as a high speed transmission medium with a data transmission rate of 20Mbps in an electrostatic-coupling intra-body communication system. Therefore, a wideband signal can be transmitted directly through the human body with a good signal-to-noise quality of 10 dB if the high-pass 3 dB frequency is suitably selected.
This work presents a biopotential front-end amplifier in which the MOS transistors are biased in subthreshold region with a supply voltage and current of 0.4-0.8 V and 0.23-1.86 μA, respectively, to reduce the system power. Flicker noise is then removed using a chopping technique, and differential interference produced by electrode impedance imbalance is suppressed using a Gm-C filter. Additionally, the circuit is fabricated using TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS technology with a core area of 0.77 × 0.36 mm². With a minimum supply voltage of 0.4 V, the measured SNR and power consumption of the proposed IC chip are 54.1 dB and 0.09μW, respectively.
This study develops a form of digital baseband Intra-Body communication for wideband transmission. A simplified circuit model of signal and noise is constructed to analyze the contribution of the high pass filter function of the electrostatic coupling Intra-Body communication system to wideband digital transmission in electrostatic coupling Intra-Body communication. A unit step function is presented to determine the maximum high pass 3 dB pole that can ensure favorable signal quality in a baseband Intra-Body communication system. Body noise is measured to estimate the range of the high pass 3 dB pole with good Signal to Noise Ratio. A 3.3 Volt battery-powered FPGA is experimentally implemented to confirm the feasibility of the wideband Intra-Body communication system. The experimental results indicate that the digital baseband Intra-Body communication system supports a data rate of more than 16MPS.
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