Body EMF Absorption: A Design Issue for Implantable Medical Electronics

Recently the human body implantable medical devices have been experiencing a rapid development. Medical implants are an integration of sensing technologies, nano/micro technologies, and wireless communication technologies and are developed as innovative approaches for in vivo body health monitoring, essential life function supporting and diseases controlling/regulating. Those miniaturized medical electronic systems have significantly improved the quality of life of many patients. The majority of those human body implantable biomedical devices have wireless communication capabilities. With the fast expansion of clinical adoption of those technologies, the biological effects from the implantable electromagnetic field (EMF) sources have become a serious concern. Though many researches have been conducted for Radio Frequency (RF) bioeffects from external sources such as a mobile phone, few efforts have been spent on studying the effects from implanted, the internal sources. This paper presents a review on various wireless communication technologies and frequency bands used by implantable medical systems as well as the current adopted EMF absorption safety guidelines and suggests that those safety guidelines are not sufficiently addressed for implantable medical electronics design purposes.