Body coupled communication (BCC) uses the conductive tissues in the body as a channel to form a body area network (BAN).\u00a0 BCC is implemented with the transmitter and receiver each having two electrodes.\u00a0 These electrodes make capacitive links with the human body and the environment as shown in Figure 1(a).\u00a0 Figure 1(b) shows the circuit diagram of these capacitive links.\u00a0 There have been two ways to implement BCC; one will be called \u201ctraditional\u201d (T-BCC) and the other \u201cwave-guide\u201d (W-BCC).\u00a0 The desired current path used in T-BCC is through both the body and the environment (see Figure 2(a)), while the desired current path for W-BCC is solely through the body (see Figure 2(b)).<\/p>\n
Whether or not the dominant current path is T-BCC or W-BCC is important regarding the feasibility of implants using BCC.\u00a0 Implanted devices would not be able to utilize T-BCC because they cannot make a capacitive link with the environment.\u00a0 It is also important for purely external BCC because it would determine whether or not the impedance of the capacitive links \u201cE\u201d and \u201cF\u201d should be minimized or maximized. W-BCC is being investigated to determine if it is indeed the main current path allowing implants to use BCC to send data outside the body.<\/p>\n
References:[1<\/a>]<\/sup>[2<\/a>]<\/sup>[3<\/a>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\t\t