A Five-Tissue-Layer Human Body Communication Circuit Model Tunable to Individual Characteristics

• Published in: IEEE transactions on biomedical circuits and systems Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 303 - 312
• Main Authors: Mao, Jingna, Yang, Huazhong, Lian, Yong, Zhao, Bo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.04.2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Admittance; Biological system modeling; Body area networks; Body tissue layer; Capacitance; channel model; Couplings; Human body; human body communication (HBC); IEEE 802.15.6; Impedance; Integrated circuit modeling; Model accuracy; path loss; Thickness; Transceivers; wireless body area network (WBAN); Wireless communication; Wireless communications
• ISSN: 1932-4545; 1940-9990; 1940-9990
• DOI: 10.1109/TBCAS.2018.2798410

Human body communication (HBC) has several advantages over traditional wireless communications due to the high conductivity of human body. An accurate body channel model plays a vital role in optimizing the performance and power of HBC transceivers. In this paper, we present a body channel model with three distinct features. First, it takes into account all five body tissue layers resulting better accuracy; second, it adapts to different individuals with the proposed layer thickness estimation technique; third, it counts in the variation of backward coupling capacitance versus different postures. These new features significantly improve the model accuracy. Measurement results show that the proposed model achieves a maximum error of 2.21% in path loss for different human subjects.