Transdermal Optical Communications

Active medical implants (AMIs) are "electronic medicators and monitors" that inject controlled currents to the heart, spine, brain, or other organs or control electromechanical medical devices such as medication dispensers. Imagine an AMI with molecular in vivo sensors for biological assay that uses these data to monitor a patient's condition and its own performance as well as diagnose, indicate status to health care providers, and automatically adjust its operation. In this scenario the AMI provides rapid, bidirectional through-skin (transdermal) data/information transfer and programming, relying on high-capacity memory storage. Future AMI communications will require a significantly increased data rate to/from an external reader-programmer in addition to improved operational aspects. This article presents early efforts to develop a high-data-rate (greater than 1 Mbps) optical link to achieve these future requirements.