Patent ID: 7343265

Claim:
A passive communication health monitoring sensor node connected to or embedded within a body of a structure to monitor data related to parameters of a portion of the body of the structure, the node comprising: a processor; a sensor element coupled to the processor and adapted to sense parameters of a portion of a body of the structure to be monitored to define sensed parameters; an antenna arrangement including an antenna and coupled to the processor to receive interrogation signals and having at least one tuned and a detuned state; a memory coupled to the processor to store operating instructions therein; and a parameter processing program product stored in the memory and including instructions that when executed by the processor perform the operations of processing the sensed parameters to define processed sensor data, selectively tuning the antenna arrangement to at least one preselected data receive frequency of a health monitoring sensor node interrogator responsive to receiving a power and interrogation signal from the interrogator to thereby enable data transfer to the interrogator, providing the processed sensor data to the interrogator, and selectively detuning the antenna arrangement from the preselected data receive frequency of the interrogator.