Effects of Radiation and SAR from Wireless Implanted Medical Devices on the Human Body
Pichitpong Soontornpipit PhD*
Affiliation : * Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Objective : To study the effect and impact from electromagnetic field radiation and specific absorption rate (SAR) on the human
body.
Material and Method: The present study describes a quasi-experimental research. The implanted antenna embedded to the
medical device such as the cardiac pacemaker was designed in the human phantom using finite-difference time-domain
method. The skin mimicking gels were developed as the tissue stimulant to realistically represent the human body.
Results : The dual-band implantable antenna is designed to operate at 400 MHz and 2.4 GHz and is used to determine the level
of electromagnetic field radiated and SAR levels from implanted biosensors. The SAR limitations, maximum gain, maximum
temperature rise in the body model and the radiation efficiency on each operating frequency are determined to provide the
safety level.
Conclusion : The research results indicate that SAR and safety limitations are body and frequency dependent. High-performance
and low-operated power dual-band PIFA antenna for development of the next generation of medical implants operating on the
MICS and the ISM bands will facilitate clinically significant improvements in healthcare.
Keywords : Biotelemetry, Implantable antenna, Medical device, Specific absorption rate (SAR)
