34801 - Bioelectromagnetism (2nd cycle)

Academic Year 2018/2019

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Cesena
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Biomedical Engineering (cod. 9243)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student knows the main phenomena related to the free and guided propagation of electromagnetic waves and their interaction with different materials means. She/he knows the main mechanisms of interaction among electromagnetic fields and biological systems and the related theoretical models. The student acquires the basic knowledge on: - main phenomena of propagation of electromagnetic fields - mechanisms of interaction of electromagnetic fields with different material means for different working frequencies. - mechanisms of interaction between electromagnetic fields and biological systems - elementary principles of the dosimetry of electromagnetic fields.

Course contents

The course aims to provide the basic knowledge on the mechanisms of interaction between the electromagnetic field and different materials, including dispersive ones such as the biological tissues.

The first part deals with the fundamental laws of electromagnetism, starting from the Maxwell equations and from the constitutive relations up to the energy balance of the electromagnetic field, with particular attention to theradio-frequency and the related biomedical applications. It highlights the condition of maximum efficiency of the EM energy supplied by the sources for i) the transfer of information and / or power; ii) conversion into heat. Subsequently, the plane waves are introduced as simplified representations of the EM field, useful for understanding the phenomena of reflection and transmission and the propagation law. The concepts of sinusoidal vectors and associated phasors are introduced to represent the concept of transmitters and receivers polarization and the necessary mathematical tools. Finally, materials are electromagnetically characterized, in particular the dispersive behavior of the biological ones are described starting from the main polarization phenomena.

The concept of near- and far-field regions are defined, in relation to the operating frequency used and the substantially different characteristics of the regions are highlighted.

Finally antennas characteristics for transmission and reception of energy and information are defined and simple models for the evaluation of entire radio links, such as the Friis formula and the RADAR are discussed. The fundamental concepts of radiofrequency dosimetry in relation to the growing diffusion of wireless systems in commonly frequented environments are considered.

The second part of the course deals with useful topics in biomedical applications. First of all it is considered a telemetry system for wearable or implantable sensors and the related design aspects are discussed.

Subsequently the main circuits and systems used to construct a nuclear magnetic resonance apparatus are introduced. Students will thus be able to see an exemplary application of different concepts of electromagnetism, starting from static fields up to frequencies in the UHF band.

There will be some activities to verify the intermediate knowledge, but not subject to evaluations, some hours of software laboratory in which the students will practice electromagnetic simulation and will build simple models to characterize the interaction between electromagnetic fields and biological tissues.

Readings/Bibliography

G. Conciauro, L. Perregrini, Fondamenti di onde elettromagnetiche McGraw-Hill Education.

V. Rizzoli Lezioni di campi elettromagnetici. Propagazione libera e antenne

Teaching methods

The teaching material presented in class is available in electronic format.

To obtain the educational material: http://campus.unibo.it/

Username and password are reserved for students enrolled at the University of Bologna.

Assessment methods

In addition to lectures, which involve continuously the students , the course includes about 10 hours dedicated to application exercises of the topics covered, also based on the use of electromagnetic simulators that contain the models developed in the course.

Office hours

See the website of Alessandra Costanzo