Propagation characteristics of MHz-band RF signals for intra-body communication

Abstract

We developed a near-field coupling communication (NFCC) technology that uses the surface of the human body as a data transmission path in the MHz band. It is important to assess the loss of signal propagation on the human body to design a “touch and connect” form of stable NFCC links. We measured the signal propagation characteristics on a phantom equivalent to the human body with an electrically isolated probe. In addition, we evaluated the signal loss characteristics with a high frequency structure simulator. As a result, we found dependencies of signal loss on distance in both the experiments and the simulations.