Lithium Niobate Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers for high data-rate intrabody communication
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: In recent years, there has been an increased interest in continuous monitoring of patients and their Implanted Medical Devices (IMDs) with different wireless technologies such as ultrasounds. This paper demonstrates a high data-rate intrabody communication link based on Lithium Niobate (LN) Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (pMUTs). The properties of the LN allow to activate multiple flexural mode of vibration with only top electrodes. When operating in materials like the human tissue, these modes are merging and forming a large communication bandwidth. Such large bandwidth, up to 400 kHz, allows for a high-data rate communication link for IMDs. Here we demonstrate a full communication link in a tissue phantom with a fabricated LN pMUT array of 225 elements with an area of just 3 by 3 mm square, showing data-rates up to 800 kbits/s, starting from 3.5 cm and going up to 13.5 cm, which covers the vast majority of IMDs.
Source: Nature Communications
Authors: Flavius Pop, Bernard Herrera, Matteo Rinaldi
Institution: Northeastern University
Language: English
Topic: Wireless Body Area Networks
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,890
Funder: National Science Foundation
Awards: NeTS: Medium: Collaborative: Reliable Underwater Acoustic Video Transmission Towards Human-Robot Dynamic Interaction, MRI: SEANet: Development of a Software-Defined Networking Testbed for the Internet of Underwater Things, NeTS: Small: Toward Wirelessly Rechargeable And Ultrasonically-networked Implantable Systems
OpenAlex ID: W4224252010