# Remotely Coupled Wireless Antenna System For Implantable Electronics

> **NIH NIH R56** · UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH · 2024 · $613,800

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY:
Implantable electronics can provide a direct connection to the endogenous sensorimotor pathways, can offer
an exciting opportunity for intuitive and dexterous control of bionic devices. These implantable devices often
need to communicate with external equipment for data acquisition and signal generation. A wired connection
between the device and external equipment is traditionally used for this type of communication, but this is
fraught with surgical complications, infection, wire breakage, and device malfunction. Significant research has
been devoted to wireless biotelemetry systems for implantable electronics devices and these have been
implemented in many implantable medical devices. An antenna is an essential electronic component of a
wireless biotelemetry system. Antennas are typically included in or on the battery pack, thus limiting their
physical size. But advanced fabrication techniques, material synthesis, and device design are shrinking the
size of next-generation devices, reducing device footprint to minimize foreign body response. Antenna design
remains one of the major challenges in the miniaturization of implantable medical devices. The size of the
antenna is determined by the frequency of the transmitted signal. Long-term implants use the MedRadio band
(402-405MHz), where a half-wavelength antenna is ≈6 cm in the body. Even applying methods to miniaturize
these antennas, they are too large for next-generation (mm-scale) implants. Revolutionary antenna design is
much needed to enable the next-generation medical implant miniaturization strategy. This proposal will use
innovative antenna system design to create a remotely coupled and injectable antenna system. This new class
of implantable antenna can be injected into the body, where they transform into a soft, conductive antenna.
Once the antenna is injected, it will be able to remotely coupled with a much smaller antenna in the implantable
medical device without physical attachment. This approach will enable a new class of wireless biotelemetry
antennas and their associated medical applications.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11191732
- **Project number:** 1R56EB036069-01
- **Recipient organization:** UTAH STATE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM--UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
- **Principal Investigator:** CYNTHIA M FURSE
- **Activity code:** R56 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $613,800
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-23 → 2026-09-22

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11191732

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11191732, Remotely Coupled Wireless Antenna System For Implantable Electronics (1R56EB036069-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11191732. Licensed CC0.

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