An Integrated On-Chip Implantable Antenna in CMOS Technology for Biomedical Applications

A differentially driven miniaturized integrated on-chip implantable antenna with a total area of 1.4 × 1.8 mm2is designed and tested for biomedical applications in this communication. The antenna is fabricated on the 0.18 μm standard CMOS technology to make it be easily integrated with a transmitter designed using the same process. The proposed antenna is firstly optimized in a one-layer skin model. CST voxel human head model is used to evaluate the accuracy of the design concept. The simulated reflection coefficient and coupling strength are studied and compared in two simulation models. A simple dipole antenna is placed over the skin to demonstrate the communication link. A chip-to-SMA transition is designed for testing. The simulated and measured results are well agreed, which demonstrates the communication ability of the proposed antenna. The effect of various issues in the measurement setup is discussed.