medical implant communications service (medical) (MICS)

Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) is a mobile communications standard for the transmission of medical data in telemedicine. MICS transmits MedRadiodata in the frequency range between 402 MHz and 405 MHz, the so-called core bands. The transmission takes place between implanted devices, the Active Implantable Medical Devices (AIMD), and the transmitting programming station.

The MICS standard allows implanted devices, such as pacemakers or miniature cameras, to operate at very low power without affecting other users or interfering with other frequency bands. Medical devices that comply with Federal Communications Commission( FCC) regulations can be operated license-free. In this case, the interfering radiation EIRP must not exceed 25 µW, the bandwidth must not exceed the specified bandwidth of 300 kHz, and no speech must be transmitted.

MICS systems must not interfere with the transmission of other MICS equipment, which requires appropriate selection of frequency channels. In addition, MICS systems must monitor the transmission channels and release them for the transmission request. For this purpose, there is the Listen Before Talking( LBT) operating mode.

In Europe, standardization is performed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute( ETSI) in the EN 301 839 standard, where some WICS parameters are modified, other transmission parameters are added. As for the transmission bandwidth of MedRadio, it is wider by 2 MHz, since two 1 MHz bands, so-called wing bands, are available for Medical Data Service (MEDS) below and above the MICS bands. The transmission rate for MICS is 800 kbit/s, bidirectional 400 kbit/s, and the range is 2m.