Mingxiang Gao

Miniaturized biomedical implants are currently constrained by limited wireless power transfer (WPT) efficiency under load variation and spatial misalignment. This work presents a custom magnetoelectric (ME) power link incorporating a load-adaptive CMOS rectifier to address these challenges. By employing a current sensing control loop for dynamic switch sizing and delay compensation, the proposed architecture achieves a peak power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 97.25% and sustains >93.4% efficiency over a wide output power range from 150 μW to 8 mW. Fabricated in 65-nm CMOS, the 0.25 mm² chip interfaces with a custom 362-kHz ME transducer (5 × 2 × 2 mm³), providing a 1.2 V output with only 20 mV ripple across a 1 μF load capacitor. System-level validation through in-vitro tissue measurements and numerical simulations confirms robust operation and compliance with ICNIRP electromagnetic exposure limits. The proposed system achieves a state-of-the-art normalized output power of 216 μW per unit magnetic field (1 Oe), demonstrating a high-efficiency power delivery solution for miniaturized implantable devices.

This work presents an implantable impulse-radio ultrawideband transmitter (IR-UWB TX) optimized for high-density neural recording. To address the tradeoffs between data rate, transmission range, implant size, and power consumption, we propose a novel co-designed power amplifier (PA) and an antenna interface. This approach eliminates the need for a bulky and lossy matching network (MN), thereby simplifying implementation and enhancing the energy efficiency of the TX. Moreover, unlike other implantable TXs that utilize conventional free-space communication antennas, our TX features an antenna specifically optimized in size and structure for neural implants. A compact and power-efficient ring oscillator (RO)-based wide-band phase-locked loop (PLL) is proposed to generate an RF carrier within the 3–6-GHz UWB band. Additionally, we introduce a 4-bit asymmetric pulse shaping technique that reduces intersymbol interference (ISI), enhancing data transmission rates. The proposed TX was fabricated in a 65-nm TSMC process. The wireless module, including a custom-designed printed antenna, has a compact form factor of only 49.8 mm2. The efficiency of the wireless link was demonstrated in vitro at implantation depths of 3 and 15 mm, achieving a record-long transmission range of over 1 m and a distance-normalized energy efficiency below 27 pJ/b/m at data rates up to 500 Mb/s.

Implantable wireless bioelectronic devices enable communication and/or power transfer through RF wireless connections with external nodes. These devices encounter notable design challenges due to the lossy nature of the host body, which significantly diminishes the radiation efficiency of the implanted antenna and tightens the wireless link budget. Prior research has yielded closed-form approximate expressions for estimating losses occurring within the lossy host body, known as the in-body path loss. To assess the total path loss between the implanted transmitter and external receiver, this paper focuses on the free-space path loss of the implanted antenna, from the body-air interface to the external node. This is not trivial, as in addition to the inherent radial spreading of spherical electromagnetic waves common to all antennas, implanted antennas confront additional losses arising from electromagnetic scattering at the interface between the host body and air. Employing analytical modeling, we propose closed-form approximate expressions for estimating this free-space path loss. The approximation is formulated as a function of the free-space distance, the curvature radius of the body-air interface, the depth of the implanted antenna, and the permittivity of the lossy medium. This proposed method undergoes thorough validation through numerical calculations, simulations, and measurements for different implanted antenna scenarios. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the path loss in implanted antennas and provides a reliable analytical framework for their efficient design and performance evaluation.

This paper presents a method for the fast and accurate estimation of the gain pattern and maximum gain of an implanted antenna including the effect of the host body, under the assumption that the latter is electrically large. The estimation procedure is based on the radiation of an elementary dipole source placed in a planar body model. The derivation of closed-form expressions is based on spherical wave analysis and the Green’s functions for layered media. The validity of this approximation for practical cases is shown on different implanted antennas, where the results are compared to full wave simulations and measurements.

Performance limitations for implanted antennas, taking radiation efficiency as the metric, are presented. The performance limitations use a convex optimization procedure with the current density inside the implant acting as its degree of freedom. The knowledge of the limitations provides useful information in design procedure and physical insight. Ohmic losses in the antenna and surrounding tissue are both considered and quantitatively compared. The interaction of all parts of the system is taken into account in a full-wave manner via the hybrid computation method. The optimization framework is thoroughly tested on a realistic implanted antenna design that is treated both experimentally and as a model in a commercial electromagnetic solver. Good agreement is reported. To demonstrate the feasibility of developed performance limitations, they are compared to the performance of a loop and a dipole antenna showing the importance of various loss mechanisms during the design process. The trade-off between tissue loss and antenna ohmic loss indicates critical points at which the optimal solution drastically changes and the chosen topology for a specific design should be changed.

One challenge in designing RF wireless bioelectronic devices is the impact of the interaction between electromagnetic waves and host body tissues on far-field wireless performance. In this article, we investigate a peculiar phenomenon of implantable RF wireless devices within a small-scale host body related to the deformation of the directivity pattern. Radiation measurements of subcutaneously implanted antennas within rodent cadavers show that the direction of maximum radiation is not always identical with the direction to the closest body–air interface, as one would expect in larger-scale host bodies. For an implanted antenna in the back of a mouse, we observed the maximum directivity in the ventral direction with 4.6 dB greater gain compared to the nearest body-air interface direction. Analytic analysis within small-scale spherical body phantoms identifies two main factors for these results: the limited absorption losses due to the small body size relative to the operating wavelength and the high permittivity of the biological tissues of the host body. Due to these effects, the entire body acts as a dielectric resonator antenna, leading to deformations of the directivity pattern. These results are confirmed with the practical example of a wirelessly powered 2.4-GHz optogenetic implant, demonstrating the significance of the judicious placement of external antennas to take advantage of the deformation of the implanted antenna pattern. These findings emphasize the importance of carefully designing implantable RF wireless devices based on their placements and relative electrical dimensions in small-scale animal models.

Implantable bioelectronic devices predominantly use wireless links for communication and/or power transfer. When considering transmitting implanted antennas, electromagnetic radiation through biological media is highly attenuated, and previous work has shown that the in-body path loss can be separated into three parts: the losses incurred by the propagating fields, the reflections at media interfaces, and the coupling of the antenna reactive near field and the lossy body. The first two are unavoidable, but a careful antenna design should minimize the near-field losses. Thus, quantifying the near-field losses of implanted antennas is useful in selecting the antenna topology for preliminary design. The aim of this paper is to present a simplified model of an implanted antenna that provides closed-form approximate expressions to estimate EM radiation from the implant. In particular, we extend the expressions for the reactive nearfield losses to both deep and shallow implants, by taking into account the implantation depth. Additionally, the proposed approximate method is verified by comparing the results obtained with the full-wave simulations in the case of a miniature implanted antenna, and with both simulated and measured results from two practical examples found in the literature.

The wireless power transfer efficiency to implanted bioelectronic devices is constrained by several frequency-dependent physical mechanisms. Recent works have developed several mathematical formulations to understand these mechanisms and predict the optimal operating conditions. However, existing approaches rely on simplified body models, which are unable to capture important aspects of wireless power transfer. Therefore, this paper proposes the efficiency analysis approach in anatomical models that can provide insightful information on achieving the optimum operation conditions. First, this approach is validated with a theoretical spherical wave expansion analysis, and the results for a simplified spherical model and a human pectoral model are compared. The results show that although a magnetic receiver outperforms an electric one for near-field operation and both sources could be equally employed in far-field range, it is in mid-field that the maximum efficiency is achieved with an optimum frequency between 1-5 GHz depending on the implantation depth. The receiver orientation is another factor that affects the efficiency, with a maximum difference between the best and worst-case scenarios around five times for the electric source and over 13 times for the magnetic one. This approach is used to analyze the case of a deep-implanted pacemaker wirelessly powered by an on-body transmitter and subjected to stochastic misalignments. We evaluate the efficiency and exposure, and we demonstrate how a buffered transmitter can be tailored to achieve maximum powering efficiency. Finally, design guidelines that lead to optimal implantable wireless power transfer systems are established from the results obtained with the proposed approach.

The wireless power transfer (WPT) efficiency to implanted bioelectronic devices is constrained by several frequency-dependent physical mechanisms. Recent works have developed several mathematical formulations to understand these mechanisms and predict the optimal operating conditions. However, the existing approaches rely on simplified body models, which are unable to capture important aspects of WPT. Therefore, this article proposes the efficiency analysis approach in anatomical models that can provide insightful information on achieving the optimum operation conditions. First, this approach is validated with a theoretical spherical wave expansion (SWE) analysis, and the results for a simplified spherical model and a human pectoral model are compared. The results show that although a magnetic receiver outperforms an electric one for near-field operation and both the sources could be equally use in the far-field range, it is in the mid-field that the maximum efficiency is achieved with an optimum frequency between 1 and 5 GHz depending on the implantation depth. The receiver orientation is another factor that affects the efficiency, with a maximum difference between the best and worst case scenarios around five times for the electric source and over 13 times for the magnetic one. This approach is used to analyze the case of a deep-implanted pacemaker wirelessly powered by an on-body transmitter and subjected to stochastic misalignments. We evaluate the efficiency and exposure, and we demonstrate how a buffered transmitter can be tailored to achieve maximum powering efficiency. Finally, design guidelines that lead to optimal implantable WPT systems are established from the results obtained with the proposed approach.

In many fields, e.g., ground-penetrating radar and ultra-wideband radiation, a high-pulse-repetition-frequency (PRF) and high-time-base-stability sub-nanosecond pulser is required, and its output waveform should be close to a gaussian pulse. In this article, the transistorized pulser is studied and optimized to improve its output parameters. The printed circuit board circuit parameters of the pulser are first optimized, which is beneficial for the amplitude and the rise time. To improve the time base stability, the collector voltage ramp triggering mode is adopted to replace the conventional base triggering mode for the pulser. For higher PRF, the pulser with the capacitance–transistor parallel structure is immersed in the fluorinert liquid. Moreover, the deficit-charge method is adopted, and small charging capacitances are used in the last few stages to weaken the oscillation in the pulse falling edge. From experimental results, the amplitude of the optimized pulser is 1.35 kV, its rise time is reduced from about 200 to 135 ps, the maximum PRF is improved from 250 to 500 kHz, the pulse jitter is reduced to 22 ps, and the pulse drift is reduced from hundreds of ps/min to 47 ps/min. Meanwhile, the oscillation in its falling edge is greatly suppressed.