Physical Multi-Layer Phantoms for Intra-Body Communications

This paper presents approaches for creating tissue mimicking materials that can be used as phantoms for evaluating the performance of the body area networks (BANs). The main goal of this paper is to describe a methodology to create a repeatable experimental BAN platform that can be customized depending on the BAN scenario under test. Comparisons between different material compositions and percentages are shown along with the resulting electrical properties of each mixture over the frequency range of interest for intra-body communications, 100 KHz-100 MHz. Test results on a composite multi-layer sample are presented confirming the efficacy of the proposed methodology. To date, this is the first paper that provides guidance on how to decide on the concentration levels of ingredients, depending on the exact frequency range of operation, and the desired matched electrical characteristics (conductivity versus permittivity), to create multi-layer phantoms for the intra-body communication applications.