Towards Continuous Pacemaker Monitoring with Energy-Efficient Broadband Communication Channel using Magnetic Dual...

Current pacemaker telemetry with BLE or other RF-based techniques relies on aggressive duty-cycling with intermittent or user-initiated transmissions to prolong battery life. These constraints limit achievable data rates and transceiver power budgets. Continuous monitoring with updates every second or minute is needed for real-time prognosis, which the existing techniques fail to achieve. While future ultra-low-power transceiver designs may enable continuous streaming, achieving sub-pJ/bit efficiency demands much wider bandwidths. According to Shannon's theorem, bandwidth directly affects channel capacity more than the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Power-optimized circuits can be leveraged for truly energy-efficient and high-throughput telemetry by broadening the communication channel. This paper proposes a novel magnetic field-based broadband communication channel using dual resonance, taking a step towards continuous data telemetry for real-time prognosis. Magnetic dual resonant coupling (MDRC) benefits from increased channel bandwidth, minimal interaction with body tissues (as the relative magnetic permeability, µ_r, remains close to 1 at the frequency of operation), and increased physical security (as the near field reactive region remains confined to a smaller area), making the communication channel more energy efficient and secure. The proposed system is demonstrated for the positions of the pacemaker's subcutaneous placement and an external hub (like a pendant) using two 4 cm single-turn coils having dual resonance at around 38 MHz and 47 MHz for the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) respectively. The experiments are performed in air and with a phantom replicating the dielectric properties of human tissues. The possibility of a 10 Mbps channel capacity with a bandwidth of 6 MHz is shown at 10 cm separation (axial movement) and a lateral offset of 5 cm. The results are theoretically evaluated and simulated with Finite Element Analysis in Ansys's HFSS.Clinical relevance- Continuous monitoring and latency in pacemaker data telemetry remain challenging due to battery life constraints, especially to enable real-time prognosis. This work demonstrates the possibility of a broadband magnetically coupled communication channel to enable faster and more frequent pacing information monitoring using power-optimized circuits.