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Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
Dual-Port Planar Antenna for Implantable
Inductively Coupled Sensors
Mohammad H. Behfar, Lauri Sydänheimo, Shuvo Roy and, Leena Ukkonen
Abstract- Passive implantable sensors have received
considerable attention for wireless in vivo measurement of
physiological parameters in challenging locations of the
human body. They are considered promising alternatives
to the existing catheter-based biomedical transducers and
battery powered implants. In this study, we report a novel
planar reader antenna for wireless interrogation of LC-
based passive implantable sensors. The antenna utilizes
two planar, electromagnetically isolated loops for wireless
detection of the resonance frequency of the LC sensors. 2D
and 3D versions of the antenna with the identical geometry
were developed for a comparative study. A comprehensive
analysis of the antenna together with in vitro evaluation of
the antenna performance is presented. With the proposed
antenna topology, the isolation level of 58 dB within the
frequency range of 1-50 MHz, and at least 37 dB up to 100
MHz was achieved. The 3D version of the antenna
demonstrated improved performance by the T/R isolation
of at least 64 dB and 44 dB within the frequency bands of
1-50 MHz and 50-100 MHz, respectively.
Index Terms— Implantable passive sensors, orthogonal coils,
decoupled coils, planar antenna, T/R isolation, LC sensors.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HERE is an increasing interest in the utilization of LC
passive sensors to enable wireless measurement of
physiological parameters in inaccessible locations of
the human body [1]. These devices are intended to provide
cost-efficient and long-term monitoring of vital signs in
patients with chronic diseases without the need for an
implanted battery. Most common biomedical applications of
the passive sensors include intraocular pressure (IOP)
monitoring for glaucoma, intracranial pressure (ICP)
monitoring in patients with severe traumatic brain injury,
evaluation of progressive spinal fusion and, cardiovascular
Manuscript received March 18, 2017; revised May 22, 2017; accepted
August 24, 2017.
This work was supported by the Academy of Finland, the Finnish Funding
Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES), Jane and Aatos Erkko
Foundation and, US FDA Grant P50 FD003793.
M. H. Behfar, L. Sydänheimo and L. Ukkonen are with BioMediTech
Institute and Faculty of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, Tampere
University of Technology, Finland.(e-mail: mohammadhossein.behfar@tut.fi).
S. Roy is with the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic
Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
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pressure sensing [2]–[5]. This type of sensor usually consists
of a capacitive sensing element which is connected to an
inductive coil to form an LC resonator, whose resonance
frequency varies as a function of the quantity being measured
(e.g. pressure, temperature, strain, etc.). The wireless
measurement is established through the near-field inductive
link between the implant and an externally coupled reader
antenna. Previous studies mostly focused on the development
of the sensor [1],[6]–[9]. However, further investigation
should be carried out on the improvement of the external
reader. In those studies, the external reader is a single loop to
measure the resonance frequency of the sensor using phase dip
technique. This type of reader loops benefits from simplicity
in analysis, design and fabrication. However, with this reader
design, isolation of the weak signal received from a small
implant is challenging [10]. A possible approach to tackle this
issue is to use RF circulators to separate the signal flow in
concurrent excitation and acquisition while using a shared
reader loop. Unfortunately, this approach suffers from signal
leakage between the transmitter and receiver paths as well as
the insertion loss of the signal traveling through the circulator
ports [11]. The impact of the insertion loss is critical when
measuring the resonance frequency of miniature implants in
deep. In addition, low frequency (<100 MHz) circulators are
bulky and expensive[12].
To overcome the limitations of the single loop approach,
Talman et al. [13] designed a novel orthogonal-coil RF probe
for implantable passive sensors. The proposed probe consists
of two orthogonally oriented rectangular loops. The
orthogonal geometry of the loops provides 90 dB T/R isolation
within the frequency range of 1-100 MHz, which is sufficient
for detection of miniature implanted sensors. Despite the RF
probe exhibiting a significant improvement in signal detection
from miniature biomedical sensors compared to the single
loop approach, it requires costly precision machining process
to fabricate perfect 3D orthogonal loops. In addition, with the
overall dimensions of 65×65×250 , it can be cumbersome
for hand-held and wearable applications. Thus, an alternative
design should address the size, cost efficiency and ease of
fabrication of the RF probe.
In this paper, we propose a dual-port planar RF antenna for
wireless interrogation of the LC sensors. The proposed
antenna uses two separate loops for excitation of and
acquisition from the sensor. The proposed antenna is a suitable
alternative to the RF probe reported in [13]. An innovative
antenna topology is proposed to provide T/R isolation with a
planar geometry. A comprehensive analysis of the antenna is
presented. Moreover, in order to assess the interaction of the
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Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
Fig. 1. (a) 2D dual-port planar antenna (top view) (b) Bottom view of
the planar antenna. (c) Graphical illustration of the current flow in the
transmit loop. (d) The LC resonator (the passive sensor).
antenna with tissue, it was tested in a specific measurement
setup using postmortem porcine tissue. In addition, a 3D
version of the antenna was developed and a comparative study
was conducted. In this study, the performance of the antenna
in detecting the resonance frequency was assessed using an
LC resonator. More specifically, the LC circuit consists of a
planar spiral inductor (shown in Fig.1 (d)) connected to a fixed
value capacitor (C= 8.2 pF) to form a resonance at 32 MHz.
Throughout the text, the term “LC resonator” is replaced with
“sensor” for consistency with the concept of the study. A
complete study on the feasibility of ICP measurement using a
pressure sensitive capacitor is given in [14].
II. ANTENNA DESIGN AND THEORY OF OPERATION
A. Antenna topology and principle of operation
The proposed planar antenna consists of two separate
transmit and receive units. As shown in Fig. 1(a), the transmit
unit is a symmetric center-tap loop placed on the top of an
FR4 substrate ( =3.3, tan δ=0.002) with the thickness of 1.6
mm. The receive unit is a single turn loop on the other side of
the same substrate and centrally aligned to the transmit loop.
Geometric properties of the loops are given in Fig.1 (a), (b),
and the equivalent circuit of the antenna is shown in Fig. 2.
For a detailed analysis of the antenna performance, a
comprehensive simulation was performed using full-wave
electromagnetic simulator (ANSYS HFSS v.15). In the
following analysis, we divide the transmit loop into two
semicircular loops denoted by and .
When the unloaded transmit loop is excited with AC
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Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of the proposed 2D/3D planar antenna and
the LC sensor. The transmit and receive loops are illustrated in black
and gray, respectively. The dashed arrows indicate the mutual
inductance between each segment of the planar antenna and the
sensor as defined in Section II.
current, a symmetric pattern of opposing magnetic fields is
created around and loops as shown in Fig.1 (c). The
opposing magnetic fields ( ⃗ = − ⃗) induce currents of
the equal magnitude in the opposite directions in the receive
loop. Thus, the sum of the induced current is zero, and
therefore, the planar loops remain decoupled. The simulated
magnetic field around the antenna with and without the sensor
is illustrated in Fig. 3.
For detecting the resonance frequency, the sensor should be
centrally aligned with either of the semicircular loops. Here,
we assume that the sensor is coupled with . When the
sensor is coupled with , the sensor’s impedance is reflected
into the primary, causing the impedance of becomes
higher than the impedance of , and therefore, a greater
fraction of the excitation current ( ) flows through . This
results in asymmetric magnitude fields around and ,
and consequently, a current proportional to the magnitude of
the resultant magnetic field is induced in the receive loop.
The simulated complex magnitude of the current density in
the transmit and receive loops is shown in Fig. 4(a-f). As can
be seen in Fig. 4(a), in the absence of the sensor, the induced
current is an extremely reduced version of the excitation
current. With the sensor coupled with , the current density
increases in and the receive loop as the frequency of
excitation approaches the resonance frequency of the sensor.
As illustrated in Fig. 4(g), (h), the direction of the current flow
in the sensor undergoes 180 degree phase shift in the
frequencies above the resonance. The phase shift can be
explained by the exchange of capacitive and inductive
reactance at frequencies below and above the resonance. At
the frequencies above the resonance, the loading effect on
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Fig. 3. Magnetic field around the planar antenna. (a) Without the
sensor. (b) With the sensor coupled with .

Fig. 5. Simulated of the coupled antenna and impedance of the

series RLC sensor.

illustrated in Fig. 2. For exclusive analysis of the planar

antenna, the matching networks are not included in the
following circuit analysis. The impact of the matching
network on T/R isolation is discussed later in Section IV.
Applying the mesh equations for the circuit, the current in
each loop can be expressed by

⎡ + + − ⎤
⎡ ⎤ ⎢ ⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢ ⎥ + +
⎢ ⎥
⎢ ⎥= ⎥
⎢ 1
⎢ ⎥ − + −
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎣ ⎦ ⎢ − − + ⎥
⎣ ⎦
−
⎡ ⎤
⎢− ⎥
× ⎢ ⎥ . (1)
⎢ 0 ⎥
Fig. 4. Simulated complex magnitude of the current density in the ⎢ ⎥
transmit and receive loops. (a) Without the sensor. (b) With the ⎣ 0 ⎦
sensor at a distant frequency from the resonance (f=20 MHz). (c)
Coupled with the sensor at a frequency below, but close to resonance where is the source voltage, is the induced voltage in
(f=31.75 MHz).(d) Coupled with the sensor at the resonance the receive loop, is the current flowing in the sensor and,
frequency (f=32 MHz). At resonance, the maximum current is
is the current in the receive loop. and are the resistance
induced in the receive loop. (e). At a frequency above, but near the
resonance (f=32.25 MHz). (f) With the sensor at a distant frequency
of the inductive coil and variable capacitor of the LC sensor
above the resonance (f=50 MHz). (g) Direction of the current flow in model (shown in Fig.2), respectively. R is a 50-ohm resistor
the sensor’s coil at frequencies above the resonance and, (h) at representing the source and load impedances. The inductances
frequencies below the resonance. of each semicircular loops and the receive loop are denoted by
and , respectively. The mutual inductances between each
is reversed, thereby the impedance of becomes less than segment of the planar antenna and the sensor are defined as
the impedance of . Therefore, as can be seen in Fig. following:
4(e),the current with higher magnitude flows through . At
resonance, the phase angle of the current oscillates between : The mutual inductance between each semicircular loop
-90 and +90 degree where the capacitive and inductive and the receive loop.
reactances cancel out each other. At this specific frequency, , : The mutual inductances between the sensor, and
the loading effect on and is exchanged periodically and , respectively.
and, as shown in Fig. 4(d), the maximum current is induced in : The mutual inductance between the receive loop and
the receive loop. sensor.
The induced voltage in the receive loop can be calculated : The mutual inductance between and .
by circuit analysis of the electrical model of the antenna

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Fig. 6. (a) 3D antenna. (b) Graphical illustration of the angular

rotation of the transmit loop about Z-axis. The transmit and receive
loops are separated by 1.6 mm.

Solving the 4×4 system in Eq. (1), the induced current and
voltage in the receive loop are given by

[ ( − )+ ( − )]
= (2)
( + )( − )+2

[ ( − )+ ( − )]
= = (3)
( + )( − )+2
Fig.7. (a) The coated sensor is placed inside the porcine tissue. (b)
Measurement setup for the porcine measurement. (c) The planar
antenna versus the orthogonal-coil RF probe proposed in [13]. (d)
[ ( − )+ ( − )] Graphical illustration of the measurement setup for eddy current test.
| |= (4)
( − )
[ ( − )+2 ] + is a volumed version of the 2D antenna with the identical
geometric properties. The 3D antenna was shaped by laser
cutting the pattern of the loops from an FR4 sheet. Then the
whole volume of the frame was covered by adhesive copper
In view of Eq. (4), | | reaches the maximum value when foil. The basis of the transmit and receive loops are attached to
is maximized. Considering that in a series RLC resonator, the a cardboard with the thickness of 1.6 mm using Blu-Tack
current reaches the highest magnitude at the resonance (deformable pressure sensitive adhesive paste).
frequency [15], for a fixed voltage source ( ), | / | is As discussed in Section II.A, the T/R isolation is the result
maximum at the resonance frequency of the sensor. In this of the symmetric opposing magnetic fields around
study, the resonance frequency of the sensor is detected by semicircular loops. Creation of perfect symmetric opposing
measuring the forward transmission gain ( parameter) magnetic fields requires ideal impedance balance between
between transmitter and receiver, provided that the transmit and .In other words, the current flowing in each
and receive loops are connected to Port 1 and Port 2 of a 50- semicircular loop should be exactly equal to create opposing
ohm VNA, respectively. With the configuration shown in magnetic fields of the same magnitude. However, in practice,
Fig.2, of the antenna can be expressed [16] by fabrication tolerances might distort the impedance balance,
and thereby, causing unequal currents flow in semicircular
= 2 (5) loops. This results in unbalanced opposing magnetic fields,
which causes signal leakage from the transmitter to receiver.
To address this issue, the 3D version of the antenna was
Therefore, the frequency at which the peaks, represents the designed so that the transmit loop can slightly rotate about the
resonance frequency of the sensor. Fig. 5 shows the simulated Z-axis (shown in Fig. 6(b)). Through empirical experiments,
parameter of the antenna when coupled with the sensor. the effective angular rotation found to be less than ±1 degree
to improve the T/R isolation up to 7 dB compared to the 2D
B. 3D version of the antenna antenna. In the prototype developed in this study, the T/R
isolation is tuned by slightly rotating the base of the transmit
A prototype of the 3D version of the antenna was developed loop using a plastic tweezer.
for a comparative study with the 2D version. The 3D antenna

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III. EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENT increased in the steps of 5 mm, starting from 5 mm up to 25

A. Measurement in air
As the first step to verify the performance of the antennas,
we measured the resonance frequency of the sensor in the air
over distances from the antennas. The measurements were
performed using a 50-ohm VNA with the configuration
mentioned in Section II. The distance between the sensor and
reader was increased at 5-mm intervals, starting from 5 mm up
to 35 mm and 40 mm for the 2D and 3D antennas,
respectively, where the resonance frequency was not
detectable by the antennas.
B. Porcine measurement
In order to verify the performance of the reader antennas
when interacting with the tissue in real-life biomedical
applications, both 2D and 3D antennas were tested in a
specific measurement setup using a fresh postmortem porcine
tissue. According to [17], dielectric properties of the tissue
used in this study corresponds best to the dielectric
characteristics of tissue in a young human. In this
measurement setup, the sensor was placed at different depths
inside the porcine tissue through a small incision (as shown in
Fig. 7(a)). The reader antenna was kept very close to the outer
surface of the tissue. Similar to the measurment in air, the
depth at which the sensor was placed inside the tissue was
mm for the 2D antenna, and 30 mm for the 3D antenna, where
the peak response of parameter disappeared. The sensor
was coated with 1 mm biomedical grade silicone adhesive
(Nusil, MED-2000) on each side to protect the spiral coil from
direct contact with the tissue. The impact of the coating
material on the resonance frequency of the sensor is discussed
in the following section.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Measuring the resonance frequency
The measured resonance frequency of the sensor in the air
and porcine tissue with the 2D and 3D antennas is shown in
Fig. 8 (a)-(d). The resonance frequency of the sensor was
recognized by searching for a distinguishable peak in the
magnitude of the parameter. With the 2D planar antenna,
the resonance frequency of the sensor was measured at the
maximum distance of 35 and 25 mm in air and tissue,
respectively. The 3D version of the antenna demonstrated an
improved performance in term of the detection range. With the
3D antenna, the detection range extended to 40 and 30 mm in
the air and tissue, respectively. This can be explained by the
enhanced T/R isolation. Moreover, the 3D structure of the
loops provides larger effective volume for the near-field
inductive coupling with the sensor [18], [19].

Fig. 8. Measured resonance frequency of the sensor over distances from the 2D antenna, (a) in the air, and (b) in the porcine tissue. (c)
Measured resonance frequency with the 3D antenna in the air. (d) Measured resonance frequency with the 3D antenna in the porcine tissue.

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Fig. 9. (a) Peak response of the paramter as a function of the distance in the 2D and 3D antennas. (b) The impact of the matching network
on the T/R isolation in the 2D antenna. (c) T/R isolation of the 2D and 3D versions of the antenna in the air and in the proximity of the saline
container. (d) Simulated and measured impact of the coating material on the resonance frequency of the sensor.

C. Eddy current and antennas performance

The performance of the dual-port antennas (both 2D and 3D
versions) is characterized by the level of T/R isolation. In fact,
the level of T/R isolation is considered as the base line and,
when a nearby sensor is coupled to the antenna, the received
signal from the sensor is added to this base line. Therefore, a
highly isolated antenna detects the resonance frequency at a
longer distance. Fig. 9 (a) shows the detected resonance
frequency over the distances from the antennas. As can be
seen from the figure, the 3D antenna with improved T/R
isolation is able to detect the resonance frequency at a longer
distance.
B. Impact of the matching network on T/R isolation
We investigated the impact of the matching network on the
T/R isolation. To this end, both transmit and receive loops of
the 2D antenna were matched at 50 ohms within the
bandwidth of 26-33 MHz (around the resonance frequency of
the sensor) using LC matching networks. Fig. 9 (b) compares
the T/R isolation of the antenna with and without the matching
networks. As the graph shows, the isolation level degraded in
the matched 2D antenna. The severity of this negative impact
can be seen near the matching frequency, where the maximum
power is transferred between the transmitter and receiver.
To verify that the magnetic fields created by eddy currents
in the human body do not affect the antenna performance, the
T/R isolation of both 2D and 3D antennas was measured when
the antennas were placed as close as 1 mm to a container filled
with 0.9 % saline (ɛ =80, ʊ=1.44 S/m [13]). Fig.9 (c) shows
T/R isolation in the air and in the proximity of the saline
container. The T/R isolation in both 2D and 3D antenna
slightly decreased when placed near the saline tub. However,
the isolation level remained sufficient for detecting the
resonance frequency.
D. Impact of coating on the resonance frequency of the
sensor
As mentioned in the previous section, it is essential to coat
the sensor to avoid direct contact of the inductive coil with the
tissue as well as biocompatibility issues in the real-life
applications. The simulated and measured impact of coating
on the resonance frequency of the sensor is shown in Fig. 9(d).
The agreement between the simulated and measured data
shows that coating reduces the resonance frequency of the
sensor by less than 1 MHz. This can be explained by
additional parasitic capacitance introduced by the silicon
adhesive ( =2.66, tan δ=0.007).

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V. CONCLUSION [7] L. Y. Chen et al., “Continuous wireless pressure monitoring

and mapping with ultra-small passive sensors for health
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“A minimally invasive implantable wireless pressure sensor Currently, he is a Professor at Faculty of
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in radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag

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and reader antenna design and wireless system performance

improvement. His current research interests include wireless data
communication and wireless identification and sensing.

Dr. Roy is a professor at the University of

California, San Francisco in the Department
of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences
(BTS), a joint department of the UCSF
Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, and is a
faculty affiliate of the California Institute for
Quantitative Biosciences (QB3). He is the
director of the Biodesign Laboratory located
on the Mission Bay campus. In addition, he
serves as the Technical Director of The
Kidney Project and is a founding member of the UCSF Pediatric
Device Consortium. He has developed and currently teaches a course
on medical devices, diagnostics, and therapeutics and regularly
lectures on the medical device design process to UCSF graduate
students and to national and international academic and industry
audiences. He is the author of more than 100 publications and co-
author of three book chapters, and holds multiple patents for device
developments.
Before joining UCSF in 2008, Roy co-directed the BioMEMS
Laboratory in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at
Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, focusing on clinical
applications of MEMS. In 1992 he earned a BS degree, magna cum
laude, for triple majors in physics, mathematics, and computer
science, from Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. In 1995, he
earned an MS in electrical engineering and applied physics and, in
2001, he earned a PhD in electrical engineering and computer
science, both from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland,
Ohio.
He is the recipient of a Top 40 under 40 award by Crain’s Cleveland
Business in 1999 and the Clinical Translation Award at the 2nd
Annual BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology World 2001
meeting. In 2003, Dr. Roy was selected as a recipient of the TR100,
which features the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators as selected by
Technology Review, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s
Magazine of Innovation. In 2004, he was presented with a NASA
Group Achievement Award for his work on harsh environment
MEMS. In 2005, Dr. Roy was named as a Who’s Who in
Biotechnology by Crain’s Cleveland Business. In 2005 and 2007, he
was recognized as a Cleveland Clinic Innovator. In 2009, he was
nominated for the Biotechnology Industry Organization's Biotech
Humanitarian Award, which is given in recognition of an individual
who has used biotechnology to unlock its potential to improve the
earth. In 2012, he was presented the Rising Star Award by BayBio
Pantheon, and in that same year, he received the Innovation Pathway
2.0 Award from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Most
recently, he was recognized as a Fellow by the Applied Innovation
Institute in 2013.

Leena Ukkonen (M’04) received the M.Sc. and

Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
Tampere University of Technology (TUT),
Tampere, Finland, in 2003 and 2006,
respectively.Currently, she is a Professor and
Academy Research Fellow with the Faculty of
Biomedical Science and Engineering, Tampere
University of Technology (TUT), Tampere,
Finland, and is leading the Wireless Identification and Sensing
Systems Research Group.

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