Virtual magnetic transmission lines for communication and power transfer in conducting media

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10111612-B2
Application number	US-201615551118-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 18, 2016
Priority date	Feb 19, 2015
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

System and method for wireless, low-loss transmission in conductive medium of a radio-frequency signal received by a passive array of magnetic dipole elements from a source magnetic dipole. The individual elements are separated from one another by a distance on the order of or less than a quarter-wavelength corresponding to resonant radio-frequency. An array individual elements of which are microscopically dimensioned form a neuronal transmitter that can be configured to be implanted into neuronal tissue such that a source dipole, disposed near a neuron, passes a signal representative of neuronal activity along the array to an outmost element and further to external receiver disposed near skull. Macroscopically-dimensioned embodiment is configured to be submerged into and operate in salty water.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A neuronal radio-frequency (RF) telemetry system comprising:
a microscopically-sized neuronal sensor tuned to a resonance at a chosen radio-frequency;
an electronic circuitry operably connected to said neuronal sensor,
a passive array of microscopically-sized neuronal transmitter elements separated from one another by a distance that defines near-field interaction between immediately neighboring neuronal transmitter elements of the passive array, wherein an outmost transmitter element of said array is separated from the neuronal sensor by the distance, and
a receiver in RF communication at least with the outmost transmitter element.

2. A telemetry system according to claim 1 , wherein said neuronal sensor includes a source magnetic dipole element and said transmitter elements from the passive array include passive magnetic dipole elements.

3. A telemetry system according to claim 1 , wherein the passive array includes at least one of a one-dimensional array, a two-dimensional array, and a three-dimensional array.

4. A telemetry system according to claim 1 , further comprising electronic circuitry configured to tune at least one of (i) a configuration of elements of said transmission line and (ii) the chosen frequency.

5. A telemetry system according to claim 1 , wherein said microscopically-sized neuronal transmitter elements include antenna elements having a longest dimension that does not exceed one half wavelength corresponding to said chosen frequency in a medium surrounding the telemetry system.

6. A telemetry system according to claim 1 , configured to operate in a conductive medium.

Assignees

• Univ Arizona State

Inventors

• Diaz Rodolfo E
• Yousefi Tara

Classifications

• H04B5/0037

  Electricity · mapped topic

• A61B5/40 Primary

  Detecting, measuring or recording for evaluating the nervous system (for sleep A61B5/4806; for anaesthesia A61B5/4821; for pain A61B5/4824) · CPC title

• H02J50/23

  characterised by the type of transmitting antennas, e.g. directional array antennas or Yagi antennas · CPC title

• H01F2038/143

  for signals · CPC title

• H02J50/12 Primary

  of the resonant type · CPC title