Published in

Nature Research, Nature Communications, 1(14), 2023

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39850-2

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Implant-to-implant wireless networking with metamaterial textiles

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractImplanted bioelectronic devices can form distributed networks capable of sensing health conditions and delivering therapy throughout the body. Current clinically-used approaches for wireless communication, however, do not support direct networking between implants because of signal losses from absorption and reflection by the body. As a result, existing examples of such networks rely on an external relay device that needs to be periodically recharged and constitutes a single point of failure. Here, we demonstrate direct implant-to-implant wireless networking at the scale of the human body using metamaterial textiles. The textiles facilitate non-radiative propagation of radio-frequency signals along the surface of the body, passively amplifying the received signal strength by more than three orders of magnitude (>30 dB) compared to without the textile. Using a porcine model, we demonstrate closed-loop control of the heart rate by wirelessly networking a loop recorder and a vagus nerve stimulator at more than 40 cm distance. Our work establishes a wireless technology to directly network body-integrated devices for precise and adaptive bioelectronic therapies.