Electromagnetic compatibility of two novel packaging concepts of an inductively powered neural interface

For implantable neuroprosthetic devices, reliable packaging of the device is one of the requirements. Selection of proper packaging material and design is essential to protect the device from moist fluidic environment in the body as well as not to cause any harm to the implanted tissue. In particular, packaging needs to be designed carefully when the device operates wirelessly through inductive coupling between two coils, since the packaging could degrade the power transmission due to the losses in the packaging itself. In this study, the influence of the proposed packaging methods on the magnetic power transmission was investigated using numerical simulations with the help of finite element analysis. The simulation showed that both proposed packaging concepts of using a silicon lid and LTCC ferrite lid do not degrade the power transmission significantly at the selected frequency of 2.64 MHz.