The simulation of electrostatic coupling intra-body communication based on finite-element models

Intra-body Body Communication (IBC) is a communication technology in which human body is used as a signal transmission medium. Due to its unique characters, IBC technology is proposed as a novel and promising technology for personal area network (PAN), computer network access, implant biomedical monitoring, human energy transmission, etc. In this paper, investigation has been done in the computer simulation of the electrostatic coupling IBC by using the developed finite-element models, in which (1) the incidence and reflection of electronic signal in the upper arm model were analyzed by using the theory of electromagnetic wave, (2) the finite-element models of electrostatic coupling IBC were developed by using the electromagnetic analysis package of ANSYS software, (3) the signal attenuation of electrostatic coupling IBC were simulated under the conditions of different signal frequency, electrodes direction, electrodes size and transmission distance. Finally, some important conclusions are deduced on the basis of simulation results.