Fat-IBC: Advancing intra-body communication for functional restoration

Authors

Robin Augustine ⋅ SE Ångstrom Laboratory, Uppsala University

Abstract

Intra-body communication has been extensively researched over the past few decades to address needs in real-time monitoring, drug delivery, and proactive health sensing, all aimed at improving quality of life. These applications extend beyond healthcare to areas such as recreation, sports, and information technology. Several human body-centric (HBC) communication modalities have been developed, including galvanic, capacitive, and inductive methods, which use the human body or its parts as the communication channel. While these technologies enable wireless data transfer between different parts of the body, they are limited by low bandwidth and, consequently, reduced data rates. Until recently, radio frequency (RF) communication was considered an unlikely candidate for extensive HBC applications due to high attenuation in body tissues. However, in 2016, Asan et al.~from the Microwaves in Medical Engineering Group at Uppsala University, Sweden, published pioneering work demonstrating the feasibility of using adipose (fat) tissue to transmit microwave signals with significantly low loss (approximately 2 dB/cm). This initiated a wave of research into fat-based intra-body communication (Fat-IBC), with numerous studies exploring its potential. Anatomically, fat tissue is located between denser layers such as skin and muscle. Due to its low water content, fat exhibits low permittivity and signal loss, whereas muscle and skin have much higher permittivity and loss—three to four times that of fat. This contrast forms a natural waveguide, which can be exploited to transmit microwave signals effectively at ISM frequencies. Fat-IBC offers a significant advancement in intra-body data transmission by providing higher bandwidth and improved power efficiency, thereby extending the battery life of implanted devices. It also holds promise for applications such as artificial limbs, which require the wireless transfer of large volumes of electrophysiological data.

About the Speaker

Robin Augustine, Ångstrom Laboratory, Uppsala University

Dr. Robin Augustine is an associate professor in Medical Engineering at Uppsala University, Sweden. He holds a Ph.D.~in Electronics and Optic Systems from Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, France, a Master's in Electronics with Robotics Specialization from Cochin University of Science and Technology, India, and a Bachelor's in Electronics Science from Mahatma Gandhi University, India. He has served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Rennes 1, France, and has been a Senior Researcher at Uppsala University since 2011. He is the Founder, Chairperson, and CTO of Probingon AB, a Swedish Medtech company, and leads the Microwaves at the Medical Engineering Group (MMG). His research contributions span biomedical engineering, microwave technology, non-invasive physiological sensing, and IoT, with involvement in multiple high-impact projects, including the EU Project SINTEC, SSF Framework Grants LifeSec and Zero-IoT, and the Horizon 2020 FETOPEN Science Excellence Project B-CRATOS. He has led Vinnova and Eurostars-funded projects in skin cancer diagnostics, biomedical sensors, and human-machine interfaces. He has presented at the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences and has authored over 250 publications, holding five patents. His doctoral thesis focused on electromagnetic modeling of human tissues and antenna-human body interaction in the BAN context, pioneering the concept of human body-centric communication known as Fat-IBC. He is an active member of IEEE.

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Issue

2025: Proceedings of the 43rd Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference

Article ID

SPP-2025-INV-PS-32

Section

Invited Presentations

Published

2025-06-26

How to Cite

[1]

R Augustine, Fat-IBC: Advancing intra-body communication for functional restoration, Proceedings of the Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas 43, SPP-2025-INV-PS-32 (2025). URL: https://proceedings.spp-online.org/article/view/SPP-2025-INV-PS-32.