RFID Body Chip: het op afstand monitoren van een lichaam, op kracht van lichaamsvloeistoffen

James Neil Rodgers (Langley, BC, CA) earned U.S. Patent 7,777,631 for a system and method to manufacture an active RFID integrated circuit as a system on a chip which is powered by enzymes located in mammalian bodies. According to Rodgers,  the active integrated circuit system on a chip is manufactured of a glass capsule containing a porous membrane which allows the free flow of bodily fluids into and out of the capsule.

The system could be used to track cattle, pets or criminals as well as monitor the health of an individual. 

The enzymes in the bodily fluids of mammals produce sufficient electrical charge to power an active RFID transponder. This electrical charge is harnessed through the auspices of a standard chemical process utilizing a nano anode and cathode manufactured as an integral part of the system on a chip integrated chip capsule. The capsule or casing is coated with bio friendly enzymes which promote the surrounding tissue to grow up to the glass casing or capsule and bond with it. This is for the purpose of securing the capsule in one position in the body.

 The result is an active RFID transponder mammalian implant which can be interrogated from distances greater than those available with passive transponders. The negative fluidic and tissue influence of the mammalian body on electro magnetic signals is obviated by low frequency interrogation. The antenna of the system on a chip bodily implant is tuned to a specific frequency so that specific bodily fluids or tissue at the position of the body where the implant is positioned will not cause detuning of the antenna.

 RFID is a system in which radio frequency communication is used to exchange data. Usually this is accomplished between mobile devices equipped with a memory component hooked to a host computing system. RFID systems are classified in accordance with the frequency used to excite the memory unit. They can also be classified by the type of carrier wave modulation used to interrogate the RFID tag and the method of data encoding. Many characteristics of an RFID system are determined by the excitation frequency. This includes the read/write range between the reader and tag, noise immunity, and penetration through various non-metallic objects. The excitation frequency has a bearing on antenna type, size and shape.

The frequencies which are commercially available can be broken into three bands. First there is the low frequency band which operates between 100 and 300 kHz. Second the medium frequency which operates between 10 and 15 MHz. Third there is the high frequency systems which can be found at 850 to 950 MHz and at 2.4 to 5.8 GHz. There are a number of key components of an RFID system. The remote portion of the system is referred to as a tag or transponder. It contains an antenna, an integrated circuit, data storage space and can have the ability to be rewritable. In a passive set up the reader or interrogator provides power to the tag. A host computer interfaces with the reader and directs the interrogation via parallel, serial or bus communications.

Rodgers’ contemplates an ultra low frequency interrogation of RFID transponders when used for counting medical instruments or monitoring medical conditions or when used for tracking mammalian bodies, in general, whether human or animal. The useful, non-obvious and novel step of this body chip is that the RFID transponders are powered by the chemicals in the body. This transforms the RFID transponders from passive to active mode.

Furthermore, an additional novel step is that the bodily RFID interrogation is accomplished using ultra low frequency techniques designed to avoid fluidic or tissue interference. Moreover, the antennas on the RFID transponders can be precisely tuned to match the fluidic or tissue environment, whether water, blood, bile, acid or fecal material as well as bone, muscle or fat.