Fibroblasts cell number density based human skin characterization at THz for in-body nanonetworks

Publication date: Available online 30 September 2016 Source:Nano Communication Networks Author(s): Nishtha Chopra, Ke Yang, Jamie Upton, Qammer Hussain Abbasi, Khalid Qaraqe, Mike Philpott, Akram Alomainy This paper presents the investigation of the electromagnetic properties of human skin tissues using Terahertz Time Domain Spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The material parameters i.e., refractive index and absorption coefficient are extracted for artificially synthesized skin cultured using fibroblast cells and collagen type I reagent. The increase in cell count number by 200% will cause a distinctive decrease in refractive index and absorption coefficient values. In addition to material parameters, in-body channel parameters i.e., total pathloss and molecular noise temperature of the skin are also calculated. The results show the dependency of channel parameters on molecular features and hydration level of the skin. Such findings will path the way for more rigorous THz channel analysis and network modeling to be applied for body-centric nano-communication specifically in the bioengineering domain.

Source: Nano Communication Networks - September 30, 2016 Category: Nanotechnology Source Type: research