A multilayer cylindrical volume conductor model for galvanic coupling intra-body communication

Intra-body communication (IBC) is a novel transmitting technique suitable for wearable and implantable sensors in home health care systems. Utilizing the conductive property of human body, IBC employs human body as the medium for transmitting electrical signals. As a result, electromagnetic interference can be greatly reduced for devices communicated within human body. These advantages are significant for the instance of long term physiologic parameters monitoring and elder patients. However, most of the researches pay attention to the experiments and simulations of IBC. In order to understand the mechanism of the IBC deeply, a multilayer cylindrical volume conductor model of human forearm is developed analytically in this paper. The simplified model provides the information of transmitting electrical signal through human body and forms a basis for developing IBC applications. As the first step of this research, the quasi-static approximation is assumed because the transmission is operated in a low frequency. Then the potential and current density distribution within the multilayer model is depicted. Also the attenuation of human data channel is discussed. Finally, several optimized conditions for galvanic coupling IBC are proposed.