Magneto-Inductive Waveguides: Interconnecting the Next Generation of Wearables and Implants

Advances in electromagnetics, electronics, and materials in recent years have created new opportunities for wireless body area networks (WBANs) in healthcare, sports, defense, emergency, and consumer applications. However, low-power and reliable WBAN communications have yet to be realized. To overcome these limitations, this project proposes to investigate and develop a new class of WBANs enabled by magneto-inductive waveguides (MIWs).

To form an MIW, the space between a resonant transmitter and a receiver will be leveraged which will include magnetic induction facilitated by resonant loops placed in transverse and longitudinal configurations, or a combination of both. The MIWs, because of their inherent wave-guiding nature, have the potentials for low loss, reduced power requirements compared to the state-of-the-art and are generally less vulnerable to interference and shadowing.

They are also more secure and can likely be adapted to implantable applications. The above features are complemented by the fact that MIWs use magnetic fields which are expected to have minimal to no effect to biological tissues. MIWs can be embroidered onto fabrics (among other flexible solutions) to facilitate their applications in WBANs.

The outcomes of this research will potentially impact applications such as personalized rehabilitation, athlete training, patient monitoring, human-machine interfaces, and more. Besides advances in the basic science, the proposed research is expected to be of significant interest to students and the public. At the pre-college level, hands-on workshops will be organized to provide students with experiences in electromagnetics and conductive textiles.

The project includes an undergraduate module which will focus on interdisciplinary education, while a graduate-level course on bioelectromagnetics will be updated by incorporating results from this research.

The goals of this project are to enable fundamental scientific understanding of MIW WBANs, investigate their real-world application challenges and develop mitigation techniques, including fabric implementations and testing on human subjects, and explore advanced aspects for MIW integration with existing sensors and mobile devices. The creation of analytical, numerical, and equivalent circuit models for MIW WBANs will reveal correlations among loop design configurations, shapes, operating frequencies, on-body placement, and associated performance.

These models will in turn provide the framework for the creation of new MIW-enabled WBANs for many applications. Electromagnetic modeling of e-thread loops and modeling of their inherent shifting/deformation on garments will prove useful for diverse e-textile implementations in the future. Specific topologies of interest will be fabricated and tested to validate performance.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.