A new scientific review published in the journal Sensors suggests that advances in materials science and manufacturing may soon allow medical antennas that can safely dissolve inside the human body after they finish their job. The technology could enable temporary implants that monitor healing, deliver therapy, or transmit diagnostic data without requiring a second surgery for removal.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of patients undergo procedures to remove medical implants. Pacemaker leads, drug delivery devices, and temporary monitoring sensors often remain in the body after their clinical purpose has been fulfilled. Removing them means another operation, more anesthesia, and additional risk.
Researchers are now exploring a different possibility: implants designed to disappear.
A review published in Sensors in January 2026, led by researchers including Irene Karanasiou, examines how rapid advances in biomedical antenna technology could make that possible. Biomedical antennas are the tiny wireless components that allow implanted or wearable medical devices to send data, receive power, and communicate with external equipment.
According to the review, new fabrication techniques, emerging materials, and engineered electromagnetic structures known as metamaterials are converging to produce antennas that are smaller, more flexible, and in some cases biodegradable.
Some experimental devices are already built from bioresorbable metals such as magnesium, molybdenum, and tungsten, materials capable of maintaining radio-frequency performance for weeks before gradually dissolving inside the body.
Why Antennas Inside the Body Are So Difficult to Design
Designing a wireless antenna is already a complex engineering challenge. Designing one that must operate inside the human body is significantly harder.
Human tissue absorbs radio waves, meaning antennas lose efficiency once they are surrounded by muscle or fat. Signals weaken, resonant frequencies can shift, and the antenna must be small enough to fit inside living tissue or on flexible surfaces that move with the body.
Traditional antennas are typically made from rigid metals mounted on hard plastic substrates.
These materials are not designed to stretch, bend, or safely degrade inside biological tissue. Long-term implants can trigger immune responses, and removing them later increases both cost and risk.
New Manufacturing Techniques Are Changing Implant Electronics
The review identifies three major technological developments that are rapidly transforming biomedical antenna design.
The first is 3D printing. Researchers can now print antennas directly onto flexible materials, including elastomers and textiles. Instead of forcing the body to adapt to rigid electronics, the antenna conforms to the body’s shape. Several research groups have demonstrated antennas printed onto fabric patches or bandage-like materials that continue functioning even when stretched or bent.
The second breakthrough is conductive ink printing. Techniques such as inkjet printing and aerosol-jet deposition allow engineers to place extremely thin layers of conductive materials onto almost any surface. Silver, copper, graphene, and carbon nanotube inks can be deposited with micron-scale precision.
These processes allow complex antenna structures to be printed onto flexible membranes, bandages, or biodegradable substrates small enough to be implanted after surgery.
The third development, and perhaps the most striking, is the emergence of biodegradable electronics.
Researchers have demonstrated wireless receivers and antennas made from bioresorbable metals that gradually dissolve after operating for the required lifetime of the implant. Once the device has transmitted its final data, the structure slowly breaks down and is absorbed by the body.
In effect, the antenna performs its function and then disappears.
Metamaterials Are Shrinking Medical Antennas
Alongside new manufacturing techniques, the review highlights growing interest in metamaterials for implantable antennas.
Metamaterials are engineered electromagnetic structures made from repeating patterns smaller than the wavelength of the signals they interact with. These structures can manipulate radio waves in ways that conventional materials cannot, bending, focusing, or shielding electromagnetic energy.
For implantable medical devices, metamaterials provide a solution to one of the field’s biggest challenges: how to build antennas that are small enough to implant but still powerful enough to transmit signals through lossy biological tissue.
Metamaterial layers can improve antenna gain, increase electromagnetic coupling, and reduce how much energy surrounding tissue absorbs.
One demonstrated approach places a metamaterial layer between an implant antenna and surrounding tissue. This layer acts as an electromagnetic shield, reducing the device’s Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) while preserving signal strength. The result is improved battery efficiency and reduced tissue exposure to electromagnetic energy.
Researchers are also exploring metamaterial structures for medical imaging. A recent experiment demonstrated a dielectric metalens produced through 3D printing that operates in the 0.2 to 0.9 terahertz frequency range. The device can focus terahertz radiation over a wide range of angles, potentially enabling compact imaging systems capable of scanning tissue without ionizing radiation.
How Dissolvable Antennas Could Change Medical Implants
If these technologies reach clinical use, future implants may be designed to operate only for the duration they are needed.
A surgeon could place a small wireless sensor inside a patient after surgery to monitor wound healing or detect infection. The device would transmit data for several weeks, then gradually dissolve once its monitoring task was complete.
In another scenario, a flexible antenna patch integrated into clothing could wirelessly power small sensors placed under the skin, allowing continuous monitoring of heart rhythms, glucose levels, or other physiological signals.
Advances in materials science, metamaterial design, and AI-assisted antenna optimization are enabling devices that are compact, stretchable, and personalized to individual patients.
Laboratory demonstrations of biodegradable antennas, flexible printed sensors, and metamaterial-enhanced implants already exist. The remaining challenges are clinical: large-scale testing, safety validation, and regulatory approval before these devices can be widely used in hospitals.
But the trajectory of the technology is clear.
The antennas inside future medical devices may not resemble the rigid electronics found in today’s phones or wireless equipment. They may be printed onto a bandage, woven into clothing, or placed temporarily inside the body, and then quietly disappear once their work is finished.
Sources
“Next-Generation Biomedical Microwave Antennas: Metamaterial Design and Advanced Printing Manufacturing Techniques,” published in Sensors, Vol. 26, No. 2, January 9, 2026. DOI: 10.3390/s26020440.
Quotes and technical descriptions in this article are derived from the open-access publication and associated press materials released by MDPI.
Ray Jackson holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Manitoba and a PhD in Physics from Carleton University. His reporting interests include Current and Future Technologies, Engineering and Artificial Intelligence.