A low profile, dual-band, dual polarized antenna for indoor/outdoor wearable application

A planar, low-profile, dual-band and dual-polarized antenna on a semi-flex substrate is proposed in this paper. The antenna is fabricated on Rogers substrate with a thickness of 3.04 mm and sized at 70.4×76.14×3.11 mm3 (0.37λ0 ×0.40λ0 ×0.016λ0) only. The circular polarization property is enabled in the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) L1/E1 (lower) band by introducing a complementary split ring resonator on the antenna patch. Meanwhile, the antenna operates in the second (upper) 2.45 GHz WLAN band is enabled by etching a U-shaped slot on its ground plane. This simultaneous, dual-band and dual-polarized operation enables the proposed antenna to be applied in the indoor/outdoor wearable application. To isolate the antenna against the influence of the human body, a multiband artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) plane is added on the reverse side of the dual-band radiator. Comparison of the antenna without AMC in free space and when evaluated on the chest of a human body backed by AMC showed improved gain; from 3–5.1 dBi in the lower band, and from 1.53–5.03 dBi in the upper band. Besides that, the front-to-back ratio of the AMC backed monopole antenna also improved from 11–21.88 dB and from 2.5–24.5 dB in the GNSS and WLAN bands, respectively. Next, the specific absorption rate (SAR) of the monopole antenna with and without the AMC plane is assessed. Evaluation results indicate that the maximum SAR value decreased by up to 89.45 % in comparison with the antenna without AMC in the lower band. This indicates the effectiveness of the AMC array in increasing gain and FBR, besides reducing EM absorption in the human body

A low profile, dual-band, dual polarized antenna for indoor/outdoor wearable application

A planar, low-profile, dual-band and dual-polarized antenna on a semi-flex substrate is proposed in this paper. The antenna is fabricated on Rogers substrate with a thickness of 3.04 mm and sized at 70.4 × 76.14 × 3.11 mm3 ( 0.37λ0 × 0.40λ 0× 0.016 λ 0 ) only. The circular polarization property is enabled in the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) L1/E1 (lower) band by introducing a complementary split ring resonator on the antenna patch. Meanwhile, the antenna operates in the second (upper) 2.45 GHz WLAN band is enabled by etching a U-shaped slot on its ground plane. This simultaneous, dual-band and dual-polarized operation enables the proposed antenna to be applied in the indoor/outdoor wearable application. To isolate the antenna against the influence of the human body, a multiband artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) plane is added on the reverse side of the dual-band radiator. Comparison of the antenna without AMC in free space and when evaluated on the chest of a human body backed by AMC showed improved gain; from 3-5.1 dBi in the lower band, and from 1.53-5.03 dBi in the upper band. Besides that, the front-to-back ratio of the AMC backed monopole antenna also improved from 11-21.88 dB and from 2.5-24.5 dB in the GNSS and WLAN bands, respectively. Next, the specific absorption rate (SAR) of the monopole antenna with and without the AMC plane is assessed. Evaluation results indicate that the maximum SAR value decreased by up to 89.45% in comparison with the antenna without AMC in the lower band. This indicates the effectiveness of the AMC array in increasing gain and FBR, besides reducing EM absorption in the human body

Wideband and UWB antennas for wireless applications. A comprehensive review

A comprehensive review concerning the geometry, the manufacturing technologies, the materials, and the numerical techniques, adopted for the analysis and design of wideband and ultrawideband (UWB) antennas for wireless applications, is presented. Planar, printed, dielectric, and wearable antennas, achievable on laminate (rigid and flexible), and textile dielectric substrates are taken into account. The performances of small, low-profile, and dielectric resonator antennas are illustrated paying particular attention to the application areas concerning portable devices (mobile phones, tablets, glasses, laptops, wearable computers, etc.) and radio base stations. This information provides a guidance to the selection of the different antenna geometries in terms of bandwidth, gain, field polarization, time-domain response, dimensions, and materials useful for their realization and integration in modern communication systems

SIW antennas as hybrid energy harvesting and power management platforms for the internet of things

A novel antenna-harvester co-design paradigm is presented for wireless nodes operating in an Internet of Things context. The strategy leads to compact and highly-integrated units, which are able to set up a reliable and energy-efficient wireless communication link, and to simultaneously harvest energy from up to three different sources, including thermal body energy, solar, and artificial light. The core of the unit consists of a substrate-integrated-waveguide (SIW) antenna. Its surface serves as a platform for the flexible energy-harvesting hardware, which also comprises the power management system. To demonstrate the approach, two different SIW cavity-backed slot antennas and a novel compact dual linearly polarized SIW antenna are presented. These topologies facilitate the integration of additional hardware without degrading performance. In the meantime, they enable comfortable integration into garments or unobtrusive embedding into floors or walls. Measurements on prototypes validate the integration procedure by verifying that the integrated hardware has a negligible influence on the performance of all discussed SIW antennas. Finally, measurements in four well-chosen indoor scenarios demonstrate that a hybrid energy-harvesting approach is necessary to obtain a more continuous flow and a higher amount of scavenged energy, leading to a higher system autonomy and/or reduced battery size

Analysis of a compact multi-band textile antenna for WBAN and WLAN applications

A dual-band wearable antenna is designed on a textile material. The design operates at ISM bands available for Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) with an input match better than -15 dB. The antenna is designed by using Computational Electromagnetic Software (CEMS) based on Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method. A three-layer phantom model including skin, fat and muscle has been considered to compute the specific absorption rate (SAR). The maximum value of SAR averaged over 1g and 10g of tissue is less than 1.6 W/Kg and 2 W/Kg, respectively, when the maximum incident power of the antenna is 63 mW. These values are incompliance with the international electromagnetic safety standards

Advanced Radio Frequency Antennas for Modern Communication and Medical Systems

The main objective of this book is to present novel radio frequency (RF) antennas for 5G, IOT, and medical applications. The book is divided into four sections that present the main topics of radio frequency antennas. The rapid growth in development of cellular wireless communication systems over the last twenty years has resulted in most of world population owning smartphones, smart watches, I-pads, and other RF communication devices. Efficient compact wideband antennas are crucial in RF communication devices. This book presents information on planar antennas, cavity antennas, Vivaldi antennas, phased arrays, MIMO antennas, beamforming phased array reconfigurable Pabry-Perot cavity antennas, and time modulated linear array