IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO.
4, APRIL 2008
Design of a Dual-Band Implantable Antenna and
Development of Skin Mimicking Gels for
Continuous Glucose Monitoring
Tutku Karacolak, Student Member, IEEE, Aaron Z. Hood, Student Member, IEEE, and
Erdem Topsakal, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractIn this study, we present a small-size dual medical
implant communications service (MICS) (402405 MHz) and in-
dustrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) (2.42.48 GHz) band im-
plantable antenna for continuous glucose-monitoring applications.
The antenna is optimized for dual-band operation by combining
an in-house finite-element boundary integral electromagnetic sim-
ulation code and particle swarm optimization algorithm. In order
to test the designed antenna in vitro, gels mimicking the electrical
properties of human skin are also developed. The optimized an-
tenna is fabricated and measured in the gel. The simulated and
measured bandwidths are found to be 20.4% MICS, 4.2% ISM,
and 35.3% MICS, and 7.1% ISM, respectively. Although we have
emphasized continuous glucose monitoring throughout this paper,
the antenna and skin mimicking gels presented here can be used
for many other wireless telemetry applications.
Index TermsImplantable antenna, industrial, scientific, and
medical (ISM) band, particle swarm optimization.
I. INTRODUCTION
HYBRID system combining RF and biosensor technolo-
A gies is the key to developing next generation continuous
glucose-monitoring systems for improving the quality of lives
of diabetic patients. Considerable progress has been made in
recent years to develop implantable sensors that can continu-
ally monitor glucose levels. These sensors rely on the interstitial
fluid within the dermis to measure the interstitial glucose levels.
However, to be truly beneficial, the implanted sensor must be
able to communicate with equipment external to the body. Thus,
the device must have an integrated antenna. Designing antennas
that would operate in human tissue is a challenging task. Factors
such as high tissue conductivity, impedance matching, antenna
size, low power requirements, and biocompatibility play an im-
portant role in the design.
In recent years, implantable antennas are studied for sev-
eral wireless data telemetry applications such as artificial eyes,
cochlear implants, brain and cardiac pacemakers [1][3], im-
plantable drug pumps,1 and nerve signal recorders [4]. Enabling
Manuscript received July 13, 2007; revised November 6, 2007. This work was
supported in part by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation under Grant
5-2007-326.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762 USA
(e-mail: tk57@msstate.edu; azh1@msstate.edu; topsakal@ece.msstate.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2008.919373
1Medtronic Inc., Minneapolis, MN. [Online]. Available: http://www.
medtronic.com
0018-9480/$25.00 2008 IEEE
1001
wireless communication with these devices is paramount in re-
alizing the maximum benefit and convenience of monitoring pa-
tients without physical contact and rigorous schedules [5]. Due
to deficiencies in suitable antennas, most current devices rely on
an inductive link between the implant and an external coil for
communication at a low frequency [6][8]. The biggest draw-
back of an inductively coupled channel is its restricted range
of communication; the external coil must touch the patients
body near the internal coil. Moreover, this procedure is time
consuming since the placement of the external coil depends on
the position of the internal coil. An antenna could free this ex-
ternal reader from the body.
In this study, our goal is to design a dual band [medical
implant communications service (MICS)/industrial, scientific,
and medical (ISM)] small size implantable antenna intended for
continuous glucose-monitoring applications. Current contin-
uous glucose-monitoring systems use a subcutaneous biosensor
connected to an RF transmitter outside the body [see Fig. 1(a)]
[4]. There are several issues associated with these systems,
which are: 1) the glucose sensor needs replacement every
23 days; 2) the RF unit is bulky adding discomfort for the
patient already wearing an insulin pump; 3) the RF unit is
continuously powered requiring frequent battery replacement;
4) the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still recommends
a confirmation test using a conventional blood sample from
finger; and 5) the sensor has a long response time (35 min).
As an alternative to the current continuous glucose-monitoring
systems, we propose a small fully implantable long-term con-
tinuous monitoring device. This alternative fully implantable
system mates a biosensor and an interface circuit with an an-
tenna. The interface circuit processes data read by the biosensor
and transmits pertinent results through the antenna to either
an external wearable device or a nearby personal computer.
The interface circuit contains a transceiver, a microprocessor,
a power supply, operational amplifiers, and mode-switching
components [9]. Since these components are quite small, a
traditional antenna for even relatively low-frequency operation
dwarfs them; therefore, designing very small antennas is vital
in order to reduce the overall size of the implant.
To facilitate improvements in the communication range of
in vivo systems, the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute (ETSI) reserved the MICS band for medical and mete-
orological applications.2 The MICS band occupies the spectrum
from 402 to 405 MHz with a maximum emission bandwidth
2ETSI, Sophia-Antipolis, France. [Online]. Available: http://www.etsi.org
1002 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 4, APRIL 2008

Fig. 2. Permittivity as a function of frequency for various sugar concentrations.

Fig. 1. (a) Current continuous glucose monitoring using a bulky external RF

transmitters. (b) Implantable RF system utilizing a dual-band antenna for ex-
tended lifetime (human image is courtesy of www.zygote.com).

of 300 kHz [10]. Previous studies have investigated various

microstrip antenna configurations including spirals and serpen-
tines for MICS band operation [11][20]. Although microstrip
antennas are relatively easy to design and fabricate, most
conventional designs for low-frequency operation have narrow
bandwidth and substantial volume. Several methods attempt to
reduce the size of patch antennas. One is placing a shorting pin
from the radiator to the ground plane; this procedure typically
produces the same frequency response at less than half the size
of a similar antenna without the shorting pin [21][23]. Adding
a superstrate of high relative permittivity is another standard
technique that generally improves the bandwidth and gain
efficiency of the antenna. The loading of the superstrate reduces
the resonant frequency, decreases the resonant resistance, and
enhances the impedance bandwidth of the antenna. As seen
from Fig. 1(b), the dual-band design allows the implant to
switch between sleep and wake-up modes, thereby conserving
energy and extending the lifetime of the implant. Although
there are many ISM bands, we use 2.42.48 GHz because there
is a commercially available transceiver for this band (Zarlink
ZL70101) [24].
In the following, we first discuss the development of skin
mimicking gels that are used for in vitro measurements. We then
give details about the antenna design, and finally, we present
simulation and measurement results.
II. SKIN-MIMICKING GEL CHARACTERIZATION
Characterizations of tissue-mimicking materials are impor-
tant for in vitro testing of implantable systems. Several recipes
are proposed for various applications such as specific absorption
rate (SAR) and implantable antenna measurements [25][31].
Since the implanted antenna must operate through skin, in vitro
Fig. 3. Conductivity as a function of frequency for various sugar concentra-
tions.
measurements require the characterization of skin-mimicking
gels. These gels are developed by mixing deionized water, sugar,
salt, and agarose. Dielectric constant and conductivity measure-
ments are performed using Agilents 85070E dielectric probe kit
and an HP8753D network analyzer. The figures presented here-
after denote relative permittivity and conductivity with the sym-
bols and , respectively. To formulate an appropriate recipe
for skin-mimicking gels for the MICS and ISM bands, we first
investigate the effects of sugar and salt on and . Figs. 2 and
3 show the changes in the dielectric constant and conductivity
with respect to sugar concentration in a 100-mL mixture. As
seen from Fig. 2, decreases significantly as sugar concen-
tration increases in the mixture. However, there is only a slight
increase in as the sugar concentration increases (Fig. 3). In
addition, in the 300-MHz3-GHz band, and frequency are
inversely related, while and frequency are positively related.
We carried out a similar study to determine the effect of salt
concentration on and . First, a reference 40% sugar solution
KARACOLAK et al.: DESIGN OF DUAL-BAND IMPLANTABLE ANTENNA AND DEVELOPMENT OF SKIN MIMICKING GELS
Fig. 4. Permittivity as a function of frequency for various salt concentrations.
Fig. 5. Conductivity as a function of frequency for various salt concentrations.
is prepared and then 13 g of salt are added. As seen in Figs. 4
and 5, decreases and increases, as expected, when more salt
is added to the mixture. Since salt particles separate into ions
(Na and Cl ) while dissolving, the solution becomes more
conductive.
Following these initial tests, recipes for skin-mimicking gels
for the MICS and ISM bands are formulated. The measured
properties of the human skin are taken from the literature
[32][34]. Note that separate recipes are given for the MICS
and ISM bands. This is necessary because it is not possible
to produce a valid approximation to human skin for the entire
spectrum from 300 MHz to 3 GHz using a single formula.
In [32], the electrical properties of the skin at 402 MHz and
2.4 GHz were found to be , S m
and , S m, respectively. Table I shows
the concentrations of ingredients in both gels. Note that 1 g of
agarose, a linear polysaccharide, is added to solidify the liquid
mixture to simplify measurements. These skin-mimicking gels
are formed by adding dry agarose in the liquid solution, and
heating the mixture until a clear solution forms. The mixture is
then cooled to room temperature. One of the skin-mimicking
1003
TABLE I
RECIPES FOR SKIN-MIMICKING GELS FOR MICS AND ISM BANDS
Fig. 6. (a) Skin-mimicking gel. (b) Measurement setup.
Fig. 7. Comparison of permittivity of the MICS and ISM band skin-mimicking
gels with the reference data from [32].
gels and measurement setup is shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b), re-
spectively.
Figs. 7 and 8 show the and of the skin-mimicking gels
prepared for the MICS and ISM spectra. The measurements are
compared with the reference data taken from [32]. As seen in
these figures, both and perfectly match with the reference
values for the MICS band. Although matches very well with
the reference data for the ISM band (Fig. 7), the conductivity
of the material is 2.27 S/m, which is slightly higher than the
conductivity of the skin ( S m) for the ISM band
(Fig. 8).
III. SERPENTINE ANTENNA DESIGN
A. Initial Design
The top and side views of the initial antenna design are shown
in Fig. 9(a) and (b), respectively. Rogers RO3210 ( ,
1004 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 4, APRIL 2008
Fig. 8. Comparison of conductivity of the MICS and ISM band skin-mimicking
gels with the reference data from [32].
Fig. 9. (a) Top and (b) side views of the antenna.
) is used for the substrate and superstrate mate-
rial. A serpentine configuration is considered for optimizing the
antenna surface area. A shorting pin is also used to assist in an-
tenna miniaturization. The pin behaves like a ground plane and
increases the electrical length of the serpentine. Fig. 10 shows
the simulated return loss of the initial design. Note that mea-
sured skin properties are used from [32] during simulations. The
antenna resonates at 500 MHz and 2.05 GHz. Although close,
it does not match the desired 402405-MHz and 2.42.48-GHz
spectra, and the return loss is higher than 10 dB for both op-
erating frequencies. To tune and improve the antenna character-
istics, particle swarm optimization is applied.
B. Particle Swarm Optimization
Kennedy and Eberhart introduced particle swarm opti-
mization in 1995 as a population-based meta-heuristic [35].
Fig. 10. Return loss of the initial design.
Recently, the algorithm has been applied extensively in elec-
tromagnetics problems [36][39]. Particle swarm optimization
is an iterative technique that models the solution process after
the natural movement of groups such as swarms of bees as
they search for food sources. The swarm consists of individuals
known as particles. Each particles position is a set of coor-
dinates in the -dimensional solution space representing one
solution. A problem-dependent fitness function determines the
quality of each solution relative to other solutions. Each particle
remembers the location of its personal best (pbest) fitness, as
well as the global best (gbest) among all particles. Using this
information, each particle ( ) moves through the solution space
guided by the following velocity and position equations:
(1)
(2)
The time-varying inertial weight decreases linearly from the
first to final iteration; this behavior damps the velocity, encour-
aging local exploitation over global exploration. The constants
and , both of which are typically assigned a value of 2, in-
fluence the pull of the particles toward either the global or per-
sonal best. Each instance of rand is a call to a random number
generator. The time step is defined as 1.
For the optimization procedure, the antenna geometry is orga-
nized as shown in Fig. 11, while maintaining the skin and sub-
strate configuration described in the general simulation setup.
The length and width of the substrate are kept constant at
mm; the substrate is centered at the origin in the
-plane. The patch length and width also remain constant at
mm and mm with the lower left corner of
the patch at ( 10.75 and 11 mm). Any remaining parameters
are considered dimensions in the solution space. Three param-
eter: center position , width , and length define each
of the four slots in the patch. A single dimension determines
the amount of material cut from the right strip of the serpentine.
The feed is allowed to move along the -axis about the origin.
KARACOLAK et al.: DESIGN OF DUAL-BAND IMPLANTABLE ANTENNA AND DEVELOPMENT OF SKIN MIMICKING GELS 1005

Fig. 11. Optimization parameters. Fig. 12. Return-loss comparison of the initial and optimized antenna designs.

TABLE II
The coordinates of the center of the shorting pin are calculated SERPENTINE OPTIMIZATION PARAMETERS
as

(3)

These parameters result in a 16-D solution space with possible

values listed in Table II subject to the following constraints:

(4)
(5)

(6)

(7)
(8)

Since the goal of the optimization is improving antenna per-

formance around the center frequencies of the MICS and ISM
bands (402 MHz and 2.4 GHz), we define the fitness function as

fitness (9)

and the objective is, therefore, to minimize the fitness function.

Rather than waiting for convergence or a fixed number of it-
erations, the procedure halts if a maximum return loss of less
than 20 dB is achieved. Fig. 12 shows a comparison of the Fig. 13. Three-tissue layer (skin, fat, and muscle).
optimized antenna to the initial design; clearly, both frequen-
cies improve. Table II also contains the optimized parameters.
Moreover, a three-tissue phantom layer is developed to simulate
IV. In Vitro MEASUREMENTS
the performance of the antenna in the presence of three different
tissue layers (skin, fat, and muscle). A similar geometry was The fabricated antenna with its superstrate is seen in Fig. 15.
considered in [13]. Fig. 13 shows the three-tissue layer model First, the antenna is placed on the base of a plastic container and
where the antenna is implanted. The return-loss comparison of then the skin-mimicking liquid is poured in the container and it
the three- and one- layer geometries is given in Fig. 14, and as is left to cool down to solidify. During this process, we did not
seen, there is not a significant change in the resonant character- observe any air bubbles or air gaps between the surface of the
istics. antenna and the gel. However, if the antenna surface is not flat,
1006 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 4, APRIL 2008
Fig. 14. Return loss of the antenna in one- and three-tissue layers.
Fig. 15. Fabricated dual-band antenna.
Fig. 16. (a) Antenna embedded in the skin-mimicking gel. (b) Measurement
setup.
we recommend that the solution is poured in the container very
slowly to prevent potential air bubbles or gaps.
The resulting embedded antenna in the skin-mimicking gel
and the measurement setup is shown in Fig. 16(a) and (b), re-
spectively. Fig. 17 displays a comparison of the measured and
Fig. 17. Measured and simulated return loss using skin-mimicking gel for the
MICS band.
Fig. 18. Far-field patterns for: (a) 402 MHz and (b) 2.4 GHz.
simulated return loss of the optimized antenna. The first mea-
surement is performed in the skin-mimicking gel created for the
402405-MHz spectrum; therefore, good agreement is expected
and achieved for the MICS band. The 10-dB bandwidths of the
measurement and the simulation in the MICS region are 35.3%
and 20.4%, respectively. The measurement in air is also given
in this figure.
Simulated far-field patterns for the -plane ( ) at
402 MHz and 2.4 GHz are given in Fig. 18 with gain shown in
Fig. 19. The data for 402 MHz in Fig. 19 are consistent with the
gain characteristics of the MICS band implantable microstrip
antennas in the literature [11].
Fig. 20 shows the return-loss comparison of the simulated and
measured return loss in material prepared for the ISM spectrum.
To correct for differences in the conductivity of the skin and
gel, the simulation is performed using the electrical properties
of the skin-mimicking gel ( , S m) rather
than skin. As seen from the graph, both return loss curves agree
well. It is noticed that the results for the MICS band shifted
to 470 MHz for both curves because the skin-mimicking gel is
prepared for 2.4 GHz. While the desired resonance is achieved,
the minimum return loss obtained for the measurement of the
KARACOLAK et al.: DESIGN OF DUAL-BAND IMPLANTABLE ANTENNA AND DEVELOPMENT OF SKIN MIMICKING GELS 1007

and has a bandwidth of 35.3% for MICS, and 7.1% for ISM
bands. During our measurements, the largest obstacle was
making skin-mimicking gels that match the and of human
skin for both bands of interest. While we have successfully
accomplished this task for the MICS band, the skin-mimicking
gel for the ISM band is slightly more conductive than that of
the real human skin. We are currently working to perfect the
recipe using alternative materials to match both the and of
human skin for the ISM band.

Fig. 19. Gain patterns for 402 MHz and 2.4 GHz.
Fig. 20. Measured and simulated return loss using skin-mimicking gel for ISM
band.
ISM band is around 9 dB. This is because the skin-mimicking
gel has higher than that of the real human skin.
V. CONCLUSION
In this study, we designed and in vitro tested a dual-band im-
plantable antenna intended for continuous glucose-monitoring
applications. The dual-band design allows the implant to switch
between sleep and wake-up modes (Fig. 1), thereby conserving
energy and extending the lifetime of the implant. We used
a combined finite-element boundary integral-particle swarm
optimization technique for the antenna simulations. In order to
test the performance of the antenna, we have developed gels to
mimic the electrical properties of real human skin. The fabri-
cated antenna is embedded in these gels and tested in vitro using
an HP8753D network analyzer. The results are compared with
the simulations, and excellent agreement is observed. The mea-
sured antenna has dimensions of 22.5 mm 22.5 mm 2.5 mm
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19421948.
URSI commissions B and K. He currently serves as the chair for the Mississippi
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for URSIUSNC Commission K, Electromagnetics in Biology and Medicine.
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He was the recipient of the 1996 URSI Young Scientist Award and a 1997 North
finite-difference time-domain (PSO/FDTD) algorithm for multiband
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Fellowship. He was the recipient of the
and wideband patch antenna designs, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag.,
20042005 Mississippi State University Department of Electrical and Computer
vol. 53, no. 11, pp. 34593468, Nov. 2005.
Engineering Outstanding Educator Award.
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