volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

This research article introduces a compact wearable antenna designed specifically for medical applications. The antenna underwent prototyping using a flexible Rogers Duroid RO3003^TM material, featuring a small form factor measuring 35 × 32 × 0.5 mm³. In the initial phase of the design process, a basic P-shaped rectangular patch antenna was employed. However, during the first design iteration (Design 1), the antenna demonstrated a single resonance around 1.2 GHz, although it was not optimally matched at that frequency. To tackle this problem and achieve miniaturization involved the introduction of two rectangular patches positioned below the P-shaped patch known as Design 2. To further improve its performance, an inverted L-slot was incorporated. The frequency of operation for the antenna is 2.4 GHz, with a bandwidth measuring 25.2% ranging from (2.087-2.692) GHz. The measured radiation patterns demonstrate bidirectional properties in the E-plane and omnidirectional properties in the H-plane and maintain a high gain of 3.54 dBi and an efficiency of 91%. The SAR values are 0.018/0.013 Watt/kg on the chest. Similarly, the SAR values are 0.02/0.015 Watt/kg on the thigh, using 1/10 g of human tissue, which comply with the standards set by the FCC and the ICNIRP. Furthermore, the simulation and measurement under bending investigation and being close to the human body demonstrate excellent performance. Therefore, the suggested antenna holds significant potential as a compact solution for wearable medical applications.

1. Abdel Aziz, A. A., A. T. Abdel-Motagaly, A. A. Ibrahim, W. M. A. El Rouby, and M. A. Abdalla, "A printed expanded graphite paper based dual band antenna for conformal wireless applications," AEU --- Int. J. Electron. Commun., Vol. 110, 152869, 2019.
doi:10.1016/j.aeue.2019.152869 Google Scholar

2. Yalduz, H., T. E. Tabaru, V. T. Kilic, and M. Turkmen, "Design and analysis of low profile and low SAR full-textile UWB wearable antenna with metamaterial for WBAN applications," AEU --- Int. J. Electron. Commun., Vol. 126, 153465, 2020.
doi:10.1016/j.aeue.2020.153465 Google Scholar

3. Musa, U., S. M. Shah, H. A. Majid, et al. "Design and analysis of a compact dual-band wearable antenna for WBAN applications," IEEE Access, Vol. 11, 30996-31009, 2023.
doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3262298 Google Scholar

4. Mao, C., P. L. Werner, D. H. Werner, D. Vital, and S. Bhardwaj, "Dual-polarized armband embroidered textile antenna for on-/off-body wearable applications," 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting, 1555-1556, 2019.
doi:10.1109/APUSNCURSINRSM.2019.8889041 Google Scholar

5. Montero, R., C. Camacho-Gomez, P. Espi, and S. Salcedo-Sanz, "Optimal design of a planar textile antenna for industrial scientific medical (ISM) 2.4 GHz wireless body area networks (WBAN) with the CRO-SL algorithm," Sensors, Vol. 18, 1982, 2018.
doi:10.3390/s18071982 Google Scholar

6. Yadav, A., V. Singh, G. Marques, B. Zapirain, and I. La Torre Diez, "Wireless body area networks: UWB wearable textile antenna for telemedicine and mobile health systems," Micromachines, Vol. 11, 2020. Google Scholar

7. Biswas, A. K. and U. Chakraborty, "Investigation on decoupling of wide band wearable multiple-input multiple-output antenna elements using microstrip neutralization line," Int. J. RF Microw. Comput. Eng., Vol. 29, No. 7, e21723, 2019.
doi:10.1002/mmce.21723 Google Scholar

8. Ashyap, A. Y. I., et al., "Fully fabric high impedance surface-enabled antenna for wearable medical applications," IEEE Access, Vol. 9, 6948-6960, 2021.
doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3049491 Google Scholar

9. Kumar Biswas, A., S. S. Pattanayak, and U. Chakraborty, "Evaluation of dielectric properties of colored resin plastic button to design a small MIMO antenna," IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., Vol. 69, No. 11, 9170-9177, 2020.
doi:10.1109/TIM.2020.2999736 Google Scholar

10. Basir, A., A. Bouazizi, M. Zada, A. Iqbal, S. Ullah, and U. Naeem, "A dual-band implantable antenna with wide-band characteristics at MICS and ISM bands," Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., Vol. 60, No. 12, 2944-2949, 2018.
doi:10.1002/mop.31447 Google Scholar

11. Bahrouni, M., et al., "Modeling of a compact, implantable, dual-band antenna for biomedical applications," Electronics, Vol. 12, No. 6, 2023.
doi:10.3390/electronics12061475 Google Scholar

12. Salama, S., D. Zyoud, and A. Abuelhaija, "Design of a dual-band planar inverted F-L implantable antenna for biomedical applications," J. Phys. Conf. Ser., Vol. 1711, No. 1, 12002, Nov. 2020.
doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1711/1/012002 Google Scholar

13. Savci, H. and F. Kaburcuk, "FDTD-based SAR calculation of a wearable antenna for wireless body area network devices," Int. J. Microw. Wirel. Technol., 1-7, 2022.
doi:10.1017/S1759078722001283 Google Scholar

14. Savci, H., S. Khan, and F. Kaburcuk, "Analysis of a compact multi-band textile antenna for WBAN and WLAN applications," Balkan Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vol. 9, No. 3, 255-260, 2021.
doi:10.17694/bajece.849699 Google Scholar

15. Suneetha, R. and P. V. Sridevi, "Wearable patch antennas on Fr4, rogers and jeans fabric substrates for biomedical applications," Communication and Intelligent Systems, 735-743, 2022.
doi:10.1007/978-981-19-2130-8_57 Google Scholar

16. Panda, S., A. Gupta, and B. Acharya, "Wearable microstrip patch antennas with different flexible substrates for health monitoring system," Mater. Today Proc., Vol. 45, 4002-4007, 2021.
doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2020.09.127 Google Scholar

17. Yan, S., L. A. Y. Poffelie, P. J. Soh, X. Zheng, and G. A. E. Vandenbosch, "On-body performance of wearable UWB textile antenna with full ground plane," 2016 10th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 1-4, 2016. Google Scholar

18. Mohandoss, S., S. K. Palaniswamy, R. R. Thipparaju, M. Kanagasabai, B. R. Bobbili Naga, and S. Kumar, "On the bending and time domain analysis of compact wideband flexible monopole antennas," AEU --- Int. J. Electron. Commun., Vol. 101, 168-181, 2019.
doi:10.1016/j.aeue.2019.01.015 Google Scholar

19. Gao, G.-P., C. Yang, B. Hu, R.-F. Zhang, and S.-F. Wang, "A wearable PIFA with an all-textile metasurface for 5 GHz WBAN applications," IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., Vol. 18, No. 2, 288-292, Feb. 2019.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2018.2889117 Google Scholar

20. Kaur, H. and P. Chawla, "Design and evaluation of a fractal wearable textile antenna for medical applications," Wirel. Pers. Commun., Vol. 128, No. 1, 683-699, 2023.
doi:10.1007/s11277-022-09973-8 Google Scholar

21. Poonkuzhali, R., Z. Alex, and T. Balakrishnan, "Miniaturized wearable fractal antenna for military applications at VHF band," Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, Vol. 62, 179-190, 2016.
doi:10.2528/PIERC15070105 Google Scholar

22. Tong, X., C. Liu, H. Guo, and X. Liu, "A triple-mode reconfigurable wearable repeater antenna for WBAN applications," Int. J. RF Microw. Comput. Eng., Vol. 29, e21615, 2019.
doi:10.1002/mmce.21615 Google Scholar

23. Hong, Y., J. Tak, and J. Choi, "An all-textile SIW cavity-backed circular ring-slot antenna for WBAN applications," IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., Vol. 15, 1995-1999, 2016.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2016.2549578 Google Scholar

24. Arif, A., M. Zubair, M. Ali, M. U. Khan, and M. Q. Mehmood, "A compact, low-profile fractal antenna for wearable on-body WBAN applications," IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., Vol. 18, No. 5, 981-985, 2019.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2019.2906829 Google Scholar

25. Li, Y. J., Z. Y. Lu, and L. S. Yang, "CPW-fed slot antenna for medical wearable applications," IEEE Access, Vol. 7, 42107-42112, 2019.
doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2908199 Google Scholar

26. Ayd, A., R. Saad, W. M. Hassan, and A. A. Ibrahim, "A monopole antenna with cotton fabric material for wearable applications," Sci. Rep., Vol. 13, No. 1-7315, 2023. Google Scholar

27. Kapetanakis, T. N., C. D. Nikolopoulos, K. Petridis, and I. O. Vardiambasis, "Wearable textile antenna with a graphene sheet or conductive fabric patch for the 2.45 GHz band," Electronics, Vol. 10, No. 21, 2021.
doi:10.3390/electronics10212571 Google Scholar

28. Shah, A. and P. Patel, "Suspended embroidered triangular e-textile broadband antenna loaded with shorting pins," AEU --- Int. J. Electron. Commun., Vol. 130, 153573, 2021.
doi:10.1016/j.aeue.2020.153573 Google Scholar

29. Arulmurugan, S., T. R. Sureshkumar, and Z. C. Alex, "Compact wearable microstrip patch antenna for 2.4 GHz using loaded slits and shorting pins," 2021 Emerging Trends in Industry 4.0 (ETI 4.0), 1-5, 2021. Google Scholar

30. Agneessens, S., S. Lemey, T. Vervust, and H. Rogier, "Wearable, small, and robust: The circular quarter-mode textile antenna," IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., Vol. 14, 1, 2015. Google Scholar

31. Casula, G. A., "A quarter mode SIW antenna for short-range wireless communications," Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 33, No. 7, 853-864, 2019.
doi:10.1080/09205071.2018.1537136 Google Scholar

32. Sugunavathy, S., V. Sudha, and D. Parthiban, "Fabric woven textile antenna for medical applications," J. Phys. Conf. Ser., Vol. 1917, 12022, 2021.
doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1917/1/012022 Google Scholar

33. Abolade, J. O., D. B. O. Konditi, and V. M. Dharmadhikary, "Comparative study of textile material characterization techniques for wearable antennas," Results Mater., Vol. 9, 100168, 2021.
doi:10.1016/j.rinma.2021.100168 Google Scholar

34. Suraya, A. N., et al., "Wearable antenna gain enhancement using reactive impedance substrate," Indones. J. Electr. Eng. Comput. Sci., Vol. 13, 708-712, 2019. Google Scholar

35. Hirtenfelder, F., "Effective antenna Simulations using CST Microwave Studio (R)," 239, 2007. Google Scholar

36. International Commission on Non-Ionizing Protection "Guidelines for limiting exposure to time-varying electric magnetic, and electromagnetic fields (up to 300 GHz)," Health Phys., Vol. 74, No. 4, 494-522, 1998. Google Scholar

37. C95.1 Edition-1999 "IEEE standard for safety levels with respect to human exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields, 3 kHz to 300 GHz,", 1-83, IEEE, Apr. 1999. Google Scholar

38. Ullah, M. A., M. T. Islam, T. Alam, and F. Bin Ashraf, "Paper-based flexible antenna for wearable telemedicine applications at 2.4 GHz ISM band," Sensors, Vol. 18, No. 12, 2018.
doi:10.3390/s18124214 Google Scholar

39. Ashyap, A. Y. I., Z. Z. Abidin, S. H. Dahlan, et al. "Inverted E-shaped wearable textile antenna for medical applications," IEEE Access, Vol. 6, 35214-35222, 2018.
doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2847280 Google Scholar

40. Ashyap, A., Z. Z. Abidin, S. H. Dahlan, et al. "Compact and low-profile textile EBG-based antenna for wearable medical applications," IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., Vol. 16, 2550-2553, 2017.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2017.2732355 Google Scholar

41. Ashyap, A. Y. I., S. H. Dahlan, Z. Z. Abidin, et al. "Robust and efficient integrated antenna with EBG-DGS enabled wide bandwidth for wearable medical device applications," IEEE Access, Vol. 8, 56346-56358, 2020.
doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2981867 Google Scholar

42. Gao, G., R. Zhang, C. Yang, H. Meng, W. Geng, and B. Hu, "Microstrip monopole antenna with a novel UC-EBG for 2.4 GHz WBAN applications," IET Microwaves, Antennas Propag., Vol. 13, 2019. Google Scholar

43. Gao, G., S. Wang, R. Zhang, C. Yang, and B. Hu, "Flexible EBG-backed PIFA based on conductive textile and PDMS for wearable applications," Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., Vol. 62, 2020. Google Scholar

44. El Atrash, M., M. Abdalla, and H. El-Hennawy, "A compact flexible textile artificial magnetic conductor-based wearable monopole antenna for low specific absorption rate wrist applications," Int. J. Wirel. Microw. Technol., Vol. 13, 2020. Google Scholar

Dr. Zainab Yunusa