Magneto-Inductive Waveguides: Interconnecting the Next Generation of Wearables and Implants

近年来，电磁学、电子学和材料方面的进步为无线体域网络（wban）在医疗保健、体育、国防、应急和消费应用领域创造了新的机会。然而，低功耗、可靠的无线宽带网络通信尚未实现。为了克服这些限制，本项目建议研究和开发一类由磁感波导（MIWs）实现的新型wban。为了形成MIW，谐振发射机和接收机之间的空间将被利用，其中包括由放置在横向和纵向配置的谐振回路促进的磁感应，或两者的组合。miw由于其固有的导波特性，与最先进的武器相比，具有低损耗、低功率需求的潜力，并且通常不容易受到干扰和阴影的影响。它们也更安全，而且很可能适用于植入式应用。除了上述特点外，MIWs使用的磁场对生物组织的影响很小，甚至没有影响。miw可以绣在织物上（以及其他灵活的解决方案），以促进其在wban中的应用。这项研究的结果将潜在地影响个性化康复、运动员训练、病人监护、人机界面等应用。除了在基础科学方面取得进展外，拟议的研究预计将引起学生和公众的极大兴趣。在大学预科阶段，将组织动手讲习班，为学生提供电磁学和导电纺织品的经验。该项目包括一个侧重于跨学科教育的本科模块，而生物电磁学的研究生课程将通过纳入这项研究的结果来更新。该项目的目标是实现对MIW wban的基本科学理解，调查其实际应用挑战并开发缓解技术，包括织物实现和人体受试者测试，并探索MIW与现有传感器和移动设备集成的高级方面。MIW wban的分析、数值和等效电路模型的创建将揭示环路设计配置、形状、工作频率、体上放置和相关性能之间的相关性。这些模型将反过来为为许多应用程序创建新的支持miw的wban提供框架。电子螺纹环的电磁建模及其在服装上固有的移位/变形建模将被证明对未来各种电子纺织品的实现是有用的。将制作和测试感兴趣的特定拓扑以验证性能。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Advances in electromagnetics, electronics, and materials in recent years have created new opportunities for wireless body area networks (WBANs) in healthcare, sports, defense, emergency, and consumer applications. However, low-power and reliable WBAN communications have yet to be realized. To overcome these limitations, this project proposes to investigate and develop a new class of WBANs enabled by magneto-inductive waveguides (MIWs). To form an MIW, the space between a resonant transmitter and a receiver will be leveraged which will include magnetic induction facilitated by resonant loops placed in transverse and longitudinal configurations, or a combination of both. The MIWs, because of their inherent wave-guiding nature, have the potentials for low loss, reduced power requirements compared to the state-of-the-art and are generally less vulnerable to interference and shadowing. They are also more secure and can likely be adapted to implantable applications. The above features are complemented by the fact that MIWs use magnetic fields which are expected to have minimal to no effect to biological tissues. MIWs can be embroidered onto fabrics (among other flexible solutions) to facilitate their applications in WBANs. The outcomes of this research will potentially impact applications such as personalized rehabilitation, athlete training, patient monitoring, human-machine interfaces, and more. Besides advances in the basic science, the proposed research is expected to be of significant interest to students and the public. At the pre-college level, hands-on workshops will be organized to provide students with experiences in electromagnetics and conductive textiles. The project includes an undergraduate module which will focus on interdisciplinary education, while a graduate-level course on bioelectromagnetics will be updated by incorporating results from this research. The goals of this project are to enable fundamental scientific understanding of MIW WBANs, investigate their real-world application challenges and develop mitigation techniques, including fabric implementations and testing on human subjects, and explore advanced aspects for MIW integration with existing sensors and mobile devices. The creation of analytical, numerical, and equivalent circuit models for MIW WBANs will reveal correlations among loop design configurations, shapes, operating frequencies, on-body placement, and associated performance. These models will in turn provide the framework for the creation of new MIW-enabled WBANs for many applications. Electromagnetic modeling of e-thread loops and modeling of their inherent shifting/deformation on garments will prove useful for diverse e-textile implementations in the future. Specific topologies of interest will be fabricated and tested to validate performance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.