Wireless Data Transmission from Smart Urinary Catheters Using Additively Manufactured Bluetooth® and NFC Antennas

Reusable “smart” urinary catheters have the potential to enable longitudinal urinary health monitoring through integrated sensing and wireless communication of biomarker data collected during catheterization. In this work, Bluetooth® and Near Field Communication (NFC) antennas were designed, additively fabricated, and characterized for integration within a “smart” catheter system capable of measuring bladder temperature and pressure. The antennas were fabricated on flexible PET substrates using aerosol jet printing with silver nanoflake ink. The experimental results of testing optimized antenna designs yielded a Bluetooth® antenna with a resonance maximum near 2.4 GHz and an NFC antenna with an inductance of approximately 4 μH near 13.56 MHz, in good agreement with electromagnetic simulations. The demonstrated performance validates additive printing as a suitable fabrication approach for compact flexible RF structures and establishes a pathway toward future Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT)-enabled urinary monitoring systems.