MINIATURIZED IMPLANTABLE
BROADBAND ANTENNA FOR
Figure 7 Simulated return loss as a function of L for the antenna with a
U stub 1. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available
at www.interscience.wiley.com]
gap g between the U stub 1 and the section 1 are shown in Figure
6. Once again, the lower-edge frequency for 5 GHz operation
decreases when the value g increases due to increased resonant
path too. Characteristics of the 5-GHz impedance matching for
different values of g are, however, about the same, compared with
those for various distances of d in Figure 5. Not much variation in
the return-loss curves is also found for 2.4 GHz operation. Figure
7 shows the return loss as a function of the length L. It can be seen
that the impedance matching and bandwidth are largely affected
for upper frequencies. The larger value of L can result in better
matching in the 5 GHz band, and L ⫽ 8 mm is chosen for the
moderate effect.
4. CONCLUSION
A printed access-point antenna with omnidirectional radiation
characteristics for 2.4/5-GHz dual-band WLAN operation been
introduced, and a design prototype has been fabricated and tested.
It has been found that by adding the U stubs to a conventional
2.4-GHz collinear antenna, a wide operating band covering the
required bandwidth of the 5 GHz WLAN band can be effectively
achieved in addition to the 2.4 GHz band. Good omnidirectional
radiation has been obtained across the operating bands too. The
proposed antenna is promising for applications in the WLAN
access point, especially in the environment where dual-band op-
eration is demanded by the end user.
REFERENCES
1. K. M. Luk and S. H. Wong, A printed high-gain monopole antenna for
indoor wireless LANs, Microwave Opt Technol Lett 41 (2004), 177-
180.
2. K. L. Wong, T. C. Tseng, F. R. Hsiao, and T. W. Chiu, High-gain
omnidirectional printed collinear antenna, Microwave Opt Technol Lett
44 (2005), 348-351.
3. MaxBeam60 embedded smart antenna, Airgain, 2007, available at
http://www. airgain.com/A2460.html.
4. R. Bancroft, Design parameters of an omnidirectional planar microstrip
antenna, Microwave Opt Technol Lett 47 (2005), 414-418.
© 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
DOI 10.1002/mop MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 50, No. 9, September 2008
BIOTELEMETRY COMMUNICATION
Wen-Chung Liu,1 Feng-Ming Yeh,2 and Mohammad Ghavami3
1
Department of Aeronautical Engineering, National Formosa
University, 64 Wenhua Road, Huwei, Yunlin 632, Taiwan, Republic of
China; Corresponding author: wencliu@nfu.edu.tw
2
Institute of Electro-Optical and Materials Science, National Formosa
University, 64 Wenhua Road, Huwei, Yunlin 632, Taiwan, Republic of
China
3
Department of Electronic Engineering, King’s College London,
Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
Received 4 January 2008
ABSTRACT: A body-implantable miniaturized and broadband stacked
antenna suitable for biotelemetry communication is proposed. By prop-
erly arranging a rectangular three-layer slotted patch structure, the de-
signed antenna with only 10 ⫻ 10 ⫻ 1.9 mm3 can provide a ⫺10 dB
impedance bandwidth of 50 MHz in the 402– 405 MHz medical-implant-
communication-service frequency band. When compared with the re-
ported most compact antenna, the proposed design achieves not only a
more monopole-like radiation pattern with a double-radiation efficiency
of 0.61% but also a size reduction of 43%. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals,
Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 2407–2409, 2008; Published on-
line in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/
mop.23649
Key words: compact; implantable antenna; PIFA; biotelemetry commu-
nication; MICS
1. INTRODUCTION
Recently, there is growing research activity on short-range wire-
less telemedicine application for treating human diseases and
monitoring various physiological parameters. As the physiological
signals are wirelessly transceived between implantable medical
devices and exterior equipment at some defined medical-implant-
communication-service (MICS) frequency bands such as 403/868/
915 MHz and 2.4 GHz, the antenna, with compact size and good
radiating performance, suitable for implanting inside a human
body, is thus becoming a critical component for the biotelemetry
communication. To reduce the antenna size and broaden the im-
pedance bandwidth, the stacked planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA)
structure is the most used design technology. So far, several such
kinds of antennas have been proposed, including the circular
stacked PIFA [1], the meandered PIFA [2], and the spiral PIFAs
[3, 4]. However, although the antenna reported in [1] has the most
compact size of only ␲ ⫻ 1.9 mm3, these antennas are still either
large in antenna structure or narrow in bandwidth for practical
applications.
In this letter, we present a novel design of a rectangular
three-layer stacked PIFA antenna with a miniaturized antenna size
and a broad bandwidth suitable for use in biotelemetry communi-
cation at the 402– 405 MHz frequency band. The case for the
proposed design is that it is not only capable of providing higher
radiation efficiency and better monopolelike pattern but also
achieve more size reduction with 43% than the reported work [1].
Details of the antenna design and both theoretical and experimen-
tal results are presented and discussed.
2. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION
Figure 1 illustrates the geometry of the proposed miniaturized
implantable broadband antenna for MICS 403 MHz band opera-
tion. The dimensions of the antenna were first studied by simula-
2407
 10
8 7.5

5
5
10 8 3 8 5
6 5
2 4.5
1.5
2
1

layer 1 layer 2 layer 3

z
h =0.635mm εγ =10.2 layer 3
h =0.635mm εγ =10.2 layer 2
y x
h =0.635mm εγ =10.2 layer 1

short pin feeder MHF connector

Figure 1 Geometry of the proposed miniaturized implantable broadband

antenna for MICS 403 MHz band operation (dimensions: mm)
tion with the aid of the HFSS electromagnetic software and then
adjusted by experiment. Clearly, the antenna with overall size of
only 10 ⫻ 10 ⫻ 1.9 mm3 is a typical stacked PIFA structure and
comprises three layers of each with a substrate of dielectric con-
stant 10.2 and thickness 0.635 mm. The layer 1 is a 10 ⫻ 10 mm2
patch used as the ground plane. The layers 2 and 3 with sizes of
8 ⫻ 8 mm2 and 8 ⫻ 7.5 mm2, respectively, were both used as the
radiating elements. Here, for miniaturizing the antenna and en-
hancing the resonant bandwidth, each of the layers 2 and 3 was
embedded with a slot to effectively lengthen the current flow path
on the patch and thus producing a resonant mode at the lower
frequency. We therefore embedded layer 2 with a folded slot to
result it into a rectangular spiral strip with a fixed strip width of 1.5
mm and also introduced a folded slot with a fixed width of 0.5 mm
to the layer 3 to make its meandered effect.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The prototype of the proposed miniaturized implantable broadband
stacked PIFA antenna with optimal geometrical parameters as
shown in Figure 1 was constructed and tested from implanting it
into the skin-tissue simulating fluid with permittivity ␧g ⫽ 46.7
and conductivity ␴ ⫽ 0.69 S/m at 403 MHz. The measurement
setup for resonant characteristics of the proposed antenna is shown
in Figure 2. Also, Figure 2 shows the measured and simulated
Figure 3 Simulated gain pattern at 403 MHz for the proposed implant-
able antenna (delivered power: 1W; radiation efficiency: 0.61%; radiation
power: 6.1 mW). [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is
available at www.interscience.wiley.com]
frequency responses of return loss for this antenna. Obviously, the
antenna provides a broad measured impedance bandwidth (⫺10
dB return loss) of 50 MHz (382– 432 MHz), covering the MICS
standard in the 403 MHz band, and agrees very well with those
from simulation, which shows a resonant mode at 405 MHz and
has a bandwidth of 40 MHz (385– 425 MHz). Good monopolelike
far-field gain radiation pattern with a good radiation efficiency of
0.61% is also resulted and shown in Figure 3. It should be noted
that, as the proposed antenna has a planar dimension of only 10
mm ⫻ 10 mm or about 0.013␭ ⫻ 0.013␭, for operating at 403
MHz, it is basically an electrically small antenna to undoubtedly
give a low-radiating efficiency. Furthermore, as shown in Figure 4,
assuming that 1 W is delivered by the proposed antenna, a peak 1-g
averaged specific absorption rate (SAR) value of 336 W/kg can be
obtained and thus the delivered power should be decreased to be
ⱕ4.76 mW to satisfy SAR limitation of ⱕ1.6 W/kg. In addition,
due to the good radiation frequency (0.61%) of the proposed
antenna, only 4 mW for input power is required for this antenna to
generate radiated power less than 25 ␮W for ERP limitation. This
also meets the requirement of ⱕ4.76 mW for the delivered power.
4. CONCLUSIONS
A miniaturized broadband stacked implantable PIFA antenna for
biotelemetry communication has been proposed and implemented.
With the insertion of selected slots to the radiating rectangular

Figure 2 Measured and simulated frequency responses of input return

loss for the proposed antenna implanted into human skin-tissue simulating Figure 4 Simulated 1-g average SAR distribution of the proposed an-
fluid. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at tenna at 403 MHz (delivered power: 1 W). [Color figure can be viewed in
www.interscience.wiley.com] the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com]

2408 MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 50, No. 9, September 2008 DOI 10.1002/mop
patches, the proposed antenna can be designed to have 50 MHz
bandwidth at MICS 403 MHz band, but has higher radiation
efficiency, more monopolelike radiation pattern, and more com-
pact in antenna size than the reported designs. This antenna is
robust and very suitable for implantable medical devices to com-
municate between the biotelemetry links.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Science Council, Re-
public of China, under grants of NSC 96-2221-E-150-001 and
NSC 96-2918-I-150-002.
REFERENCES
1. C. M. Lee, T. C. Yo, C. H., Luo, C. H. Tu, and Y. Z. Juang, Compact
broadband stacked implantable antenna for biotelemetry with medical
devices, Electron Lett 43 (2007), 660-662.
2. J. Kim and Y. Rahmat-Samii, Planar inverted-F antennas on implant-
able medical devices: measured type versus spiral type, Microwave Opt
Technol Lett 48 (2006), 563-572.
3. J. Kim and Y. Rahmat-Samii, Implanted antennas inside a human body:
Simulations, designs, and characterizations, IEEE Microwave Theory
Tech 52 (2004), 1934-1943.
4. P. Soontornpipit, C. M. Furse, and Y. C. Chung, Design of implantable
microstrip antenna for communication with medical implants, IEEE
Microwave Theory Tech 52 (2004), 1944-1951.
© 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
TUNABLE COHERENT PHOTONIC
MICROWAVE NOTCH FILTER BASED
ON PSFBG WITH OPTICAL PHASE
SHIFTER
Choong Keun Oh,1 Masanori Hanawa,2 Tae-Young Kim,1
Young Yun Chun,3 and Chang-Soo Park1
1
Department of Information and Communications, Gwangju Institute
of Science and Technology, 261 Cheomdan-Gwagiro, Buk-Gu,
Gwangju 500-712, Republic of Korea; Corresponding author:
csp@gist.ac.kr
2
University of Yamanashi, 4-3-11 Takeda, Kofu, Yamanashi 400-
8511, Japan
3
Department of Ophthalmic Optics, Wonkwang Health Science
College, 344-2 Shinyong-Dong, Iksan-City, Chollabuk-Do 570-750,
Republic of Korea
Received 5 January 2008
ABSTRACT: A tunable coherent photonic microwave notch filter based
on phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating is proposed. Because of the Yb3⫹/
Al3⫹ codoped optical fiber between two sub-FBGs, the optical phase of
the delayed signal is linearly and precisely controlled by adjusting the
injected pump power at around 980 nm. By changing the optical phase
shift inside the filter, notch frequency can be varied continuously keep-
ing its free spectral range. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave
Opt Technol Lett 50: 2409 –2411, 2008; Published online in Wiley In-
terScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23648
Key words: tunable notch filter; coherent photonic microwave filter;
phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating; microwave photonics
1. INTRODUCTION
Photonic microwave filters (PMFs) have attracted a lot of interest,
because they allow the processing of radio frequency signals in the
optical domain with the advantages of their wide bandwidth,
immunity to electromagnetic interference, and low loss [1].
DOI 10.1002/mop MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS / Vol. 50, No. 9, September 2008
These PMFs can be operated in incoherent or coherent regime.
Incoherent filters are more stable but they have basically positive
coefficients. Thereby, the achievable transfer functions are limited
and also have a resonance peak at baseband. Some methods to
generate negative coefficient together with positive one have been
proposed in incoherent regime, but these increase the complexity
of the filter [2-4]. As an alternative, coherent filters can have both
negative and complex coefficients by adjusting the optical phase
between filter taps. However, to control optical phase is not easy,
and filter characteristic is seriously affected by environmental
perturbation. Previously, Sasayama et al. [5] demonstrated a co-
herent PMF by using silica-based single-mode waveguide and
phase shifter with a thin-film heater.
In this work, we introduce a tunable coherent photonic micro-
wave notch filter with simple structure. It is based on phase-shifted
fiber Bragg grating (PSFBG) with two taps, including a piece of
fiber doped with Yb3⫹/Al3⫹ ions between the two taps, as a
medium to introduce optical phase shift. This method makes it
possible to generate complex coefficient with single optical source
in coherent regime. Also, this phase shift can be controlled by
changing the pump power injected into the medium. Phase shift is
related to the notch frequency. Thus, the frequency can be varied
with the pump power, leaving the free spectral range (FSR) un-
changed.
2. PRINCIPLE
The structure of the proposed PSFBG is shown in Figure 1. The
PSFBG consists of two sub-FBGs and one piece of Yb3⫹/Al3⫹
codoped optical fiber (YDF) between the FBGs. The two sub-
FBGs, each with length of L1, are serially placed with a gap of
length L3 including the YDF of length L2. The optical signal is sent
to the PSFBG through an optical circulator (OC). Then a part of
the incoming optical signal is reflected by the first FBG (FBG1),
and the remaining part is again reflected by the second FBG
(FBG2) with time delay (Td) and phase shift (␪). The phase shift is
obtained as a result of both radiative and nonradiative transitions
occurring in absorption band of the YDF when a pump light is
injected into the YDF. Radiative transition enhances nonlinear
characteristic of the YDF, increasing its refractive index [6].
Thereby, the phase of the propagating signal is shifted. Also,
nonradiative transition changes phase shift due to the thermal-
induced index change [7]. For perfect cancellation between the two
Figure 1 Structure of PSFBG for coherent tunable PMF, inset: block
diagram of the filter, ai: filter coefficients. (TLS, tunable laser source; OC,
optical circulator; OSA, optical spectrum analyzer; Pump, 980 nm pump
light; c, 980/1550 nm WDM coupler.) [Color figure can be viewed in the
online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com]
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