{"id":38356,"date":"2026-07-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=38356"},"modified":"2026-07-01T15:08:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T09:23:53","slug":"antenna-breakthrough-could-unlock-new-generation-of-implantable-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/antenna-breakthrough-could-unlock-new-generation-of-implantable-devices\/","title":{"rendered":"Antenna breakthrough could unlock new generation of implantable devices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image: Deepai<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A breakthrough new development in biomedical engineering could help pave the way for tiny implantable devices capable of diagnosing, monitoring and treating a wide range of health conditions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An international team of researchers led by the University of Glasgow has created a new type of ultra-small antenna which can wirelessly transmit data through tissue to external devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prototypes, which they call \u00b5Bots (pronounced \u2018microbots\u2019), are smaller, lighter, less power-hungry and produce less heat than many current implantable devices, which often rely on radio-frequency antennas to carry data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those devices tend to be bulky and generate significant heat, making them difficult to use comfortably as long-term implants and increasing the risk of infection at the implant site. The sub-millimetre-wide \u00b5Bots instead combine acoustic and electromagnetic physics to create magnetoelectric antennas which are smaller, cooler, and capable of carrying a much richer stream of data across a wide bandwidth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They could help diagnose neurodegenerative diseases earlier, deliver drugs on demand or even deliver neuromodulation treatments to treat conditions like epilepsy or Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new paper published in the journal\u00a0Science Advances<\/em>, the team shows how they created the \u00b5Bots at the cutting-edge facilities of the University of Glasgow\u2019s James Watt Nanofabrication Centre and tested their performance in the presence of biological tissues further demonstrating telemetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to the advanced performance is the design of a part of the device that is often overlooked in piezo-antenna development. Instead of treating the material the device is built on as an inert base, the team harnessed the substrate to exploit its unusual acoustic resonances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That property of the wafers allows them to bounce sound waves back and forth within the device, generating additional frequencies called overtones that can be used for both power transfer and data transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is an antenna with a remarkably broad -10 dB bandwidth of up to 22.6 GHz, which enables it to transmit significantly more data than conventional antennas. To demonstrate this, the team successfully transmitted sonogram video and audio signals wirelessly in real time between two magnetoelectric antennas, a more demanding test than binary data streams typically used to benchmark devices of this kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Mahdieh Shojaei Baghini of the University of Glasgow\u2019s James Watt School of Engineering is the paper\u2019s first and corresponding author and the creator of these devices. She said: \u201cImplantable wireless devices which can be fully enclosed inside the body instead of being tethered to external devices offer a great deal of potential for providing round-the-clock health monitoring for a wide range of conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe \u00b5Bots we\u2019re developing harness the potential of acoustic resonance to address many of the issues which have held back the technology to date. We\u2019ve shown that they are capable of transmitting a great deal of data in a way that can easily be received by existing transceiver technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In partnership with colleagues in Italy, the team tested the performance of their prototypes with real biological tissues to help demonstrate their safety and functionality, a key consideration for the development of technologies designed to be implanted in bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They took measurements of the antennas\u2019 performance in rat brain tissue, human cortical brain slices, and controlled cell cultures, showing that the \u00b5Bots\u2019 performance remained reliable through each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Adam Armada-Moreira of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia is one of the corresponding neuroscientists who co-authored the paper. He said: \u201cThis technology could let researchers and clinicians map and modulate neural circuits with higher spatial selectivity while stable telemetry supports chronic electrophysiology and neuromodulation studies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also demonstrated that using arrays of \u00b5Bots can help overcome performance issues when internal and external antennas fall out of angular alignment, a common challenge for implantable devices which affects their ability to communicate with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s tests showed that a cluster of nine of their newly developed antennas arranged in a potential phased array can match the alignment performance of a single large RF antenna while remaining far smaller and likely more useful in confined spaces in the body like the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team also ran cyclic stability tests, repeatedly loading the antennas with tissue and remeasuring their properties to confirm they remain reliable under conditions closely matching those of the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Hadi Heidari leads the University of Glasgow\u2019s Microelectronics Lab and is one of the paper\u2019s corresponding authors. He said: \u201cThese are significant results, which build on previous research here at Glasgow and from our partners across Europe to demonstrate the significant potential for \u00b5Bots to deliver transformative results for clinicians and for patients alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll continue to explore the potential of these devices as we look to test them in further trials and work towards commercialising the underlying technology in the years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, the International School of Advanced Studies, the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, the University of Rome, Harvard Medical School and the National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology contributed to the research and co-authored the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s paper, titled \u2018Bio-integrated \u00b5Bots with Overtone Ultra-Wideband Magnetoelectric Antennas for Wireless Telemetry\u2019, is published in\u00a0Science Advances.<\/em>\u00a0The research was supported by funding from the European Innovation Council Pathfinder Challenge project CROSSBRAIN, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency project NEUROBOT, and the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A breakthrough new development in biomedical engineering could help pave the way for tiny implantable devices capable of diagnosing, monitoring and treating a wide range of health conditions. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna.webp",768,576,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-200x200.webp",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-675x506.webp",675,506,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna.webp",750,563,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna.webp",750,563,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna.webp",768,576,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna.webp",768,576,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna.webp",768,576,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-768x570.webp",768,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-600x576.webp",600,576,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-600x576.webp",600,576,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-760x490.webp",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-550x360.webp",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-95x65.webp",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-640x576.webp",640,576,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/ultra-small-antenna-150x113.webp",150,113,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38358,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38356\/revisions\/38358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}