Novel Receiver for Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles in a Molecular Communication Setting

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel magnetic nanoparticle receiver for molecular communication that enhances detection capabilities, increases sampling rate, and offers flexible channel design, enabling reliable data transmission in nanonetworks.

Contribution

A new receiver based on a bridge circuit for SPIONs in molecular communication, improving detection sensitivity and flexibility over previous susceptometers.

Findings

Achieved 0% bit error rate in test transmissions.

Enhanced sampling rate to 100 samples/sec.

Demonstrated detection limits between 0.1 and 0.5 mg/mL.

Abstract

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) have recently been introduced as information carriers in a testbed for molecular communication (MC) in duct flow. Here, a new receiver for this testbed is presented, based on the concept of a bridge circuit. The capability for a reliable transmission using the testbed and detection of the proposed receiver was evaluated by sending a text message and a 80 bit random sequence at a bit rate of 1/s, which resulted in a bit error rate of 0 %. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the device was assessed by a dilution series, which gave a limit for the detectability of peaks between 0.1 to 0.5 mg/mL. Compared to the commercial susceptometer that was previously used as receiver, the new detector provides an increased sampling rate of 100 samples/s and flexibility in the dimensions of the propagation channel. Furthermore, it allows to implement both single-ended and differential signaling in SPION-bases MC testbeds.