Study of Attenuation and Dispersion Through the Skin in Intrabody Communications Systems

Abstract

Intrabody communication (IBC) is a technique that uses the human body as a transmission medium for electrical signals to connect wireless body sensors, e.g., in biomedical monitoring systems. In this paper, we propose a simple, but accurate propagation model through the skin based on a distributed-parameter circuit in order to obtain general expressions that could assist in the design of IBC systems. In addition, the model is based on the major electrophysiological properties of the skin. We have found the attenuation and dispersion parameters and they have been successfully compared with several published results, thus showing the tuning capability of the model to different experimental conditions. Finally, we have evaluated different digital modulation schemes in order to assess the tradeoffs between symbol rate, bit error rate, and distance between electrodes of the skin communication channel.