RF conductivity of biodegradable conductive polymers used for a new generation of partially/fully resorbable wireless implantable sensors

RLC resonators are used for wireless power/data transmission in short-range telemetry (inductive link). The biodegradable conductive polymer composites PLLA-PPy and PCL-PPy are used to fabricate RLC resonators, with the ultimate goal of making a fully biodegradable implant for in vivo operation. Modeling the RF conductivity of PLLA-PPy and PCL-PPy as a function of frequency is required to correctly design the electrical circuits. In this paper, two models (the empirical Jonscher´s model and Papathanassiou´s model), based on DC and RF measurements, are used to predict the conductivity of the polymer composites at several frequencies of interest for telemetry operation.