Circuit-coupled FEM analysis of the electric-field type intra-body communication channel

The electric-field (EF) intra-body communication (IBC) is a promising data transmission method for high-speed low-power biomedical sensors. A good model of the EF-IBC channel is needed for better understanding the signal propagation principle and more efficient IBC transceiver design. Although various effective models have been developed for the waveguide IBC channel, the EF-IBC channel has only been modeled by empirical distributed RC network. In this paper, a circuit-coupled finite-element-method (FEM) model is established to analyze the EF-IBC channel. A multi-layer FEM model is developed for the human forearm. The parasitic effects of the probe PCBs and the return path are modeled as circuit elements. The circuit-coupled FEM model is simulated in ANSYS. Simulation results show that the model agrees well with the EF-IBC measurements. The circuit-coupled FEM model provides useful insights into the EF-IBC mechanism.