Electrically Small Circularly Polarized UWB Intraocular Antenna System for Retinal Prosthesis

This paper presents the design of an electrically small circularly polarized (CP) 3 × 3 mm² antenna system as an intraocular unit for retinal prosthesis application.

The system is operating in ISM and ultra-wideband (UWB) bands to target high programmability of retina stimulation and recording, respectively. The electrical dimensions, including the ground plane, are λ₀/41 × λ₀/41 × λ₀/191. Physical limitations of the antenna are discussed based on Hansen and Collin's limitations. The proposed wire patch antenna exhibits wideband characteristics by combining multiple modes of the patch antenna in the presence of an interface PCB circuit.

By loading polyimide encapsulated patch with stubs, dominant TM₀₁₀ mode is combined with the higher order modes TM₀₂₀-TM₀₇₀ to exhibit wide -10 dB impedance bandwidth of 2-11 GHz. Annular rings and shorting pins in the ground plane provide CP radiation at 2.45, 5.8, and 8 GHz with 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth of 0.3, 0.16, and 1.2 GHz, and far-field left hand circularly polarized (LHCP) gain of -18.4, -7.6, and -4.7 dBic, respectively, in broadside direction. A biocompatible antenna system is designed using Ansys HFSS in the presence of a detailed multilayer canonical eye model. Additionally, it is examined in an anatomical HFSS head model. Near and far-field electric field distribution is studied along with peak 1-g average specific absorption rate (SAR) calculations.

The proposed antenna is fabricated, and the performance, including coupled power from an external antenna, is measured in a custom made eye model including head phantom. A reasonable agreement is obtained between simulated and measured results.

To generate an artificial vision, image perception capability could be improved with implantable UWB communication systems that feature particularly high data-rate and small size.