Characterisation of an aperture-stacked patch antenna for ultra-wideband wearable radio systems

This paper presents, for the first time, the time-domain characteristics of an aperture-stacked patch antenna (ASPA) for ultra-wideband (UWB) wearable devices. The methodology of antennas characterization for UWB radio systems is also outlined. The antenna operates within the 3-6 GHz frequency band. Time- and frequency-domain characteristics of this antenna are presented in transmission mode (Tx), receiving mode (Rx) and for 2-antenna (Tx-Rx) system. The pulse driving the antenna has duration of 0.65 ns. In the Tx mode, pulses radiated in different directions of the H-plane have very similar shapes. Fidelity factors are as high as 91.6-99.9%. For 2-antenna system, pulses received in normal and end-fire-like directions have the fidelity of 69.5%. As it was found, antenna does not behave "reciprocal" comparing Tx and Rx modes. For normal propagation direction, radiated pulse is the 2nd derivative of the input waveform, but in the Rx mode, received pulse is the 1st derivative of the incident plane wave. This antenna can be used for transmission of short-pulses, even 0.65-1 ns in duration. It is also small (patch planar dimensions 32/19 mm) and compact. Microstrip configuration allows further integration of active devices on the same board. Taking into account above results we can say that ASPA is a good candidate for UWB non-invasive wireless body area network (WBAN) applications

Wi-PoS : a low-cost, open source ultra-wideband (UWB) hardware platform with long range sub-GHz backbone

Ultra-wideband (UWB) localization is one of the most promising approaches for indoor localization due to its accurate positioning capabilities, immunity against multipath fading, and excellent resilience against narrowband interference. However, UWB researchers are currently limited by the small amount of feasible open source hardware that is publicly available. We developed a new open source hardware platform, Wi-PoS, for precise UWB localization based on Decawave’s DW1000 UWB transceiver with several unique features: support of both long-range sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz back-end communication between nodes, flexible interfacing with external UWB antennas, and an easy implementation of the MAC layer with the Time-Annotated Instruction Set Computer (TAISC) framework. Both hardware and software are open source and all parameters of the UWB ranging can be adjusted, calibrated, and analyzed. This paper explains the main specifications of the hardware platform, illustrates design decisions, and evaluates the performance of the board in terms of range, accuracy, and energy consumption. The accuracy of the ranging system was below 10 cm in an indoor lab environment at distances up to 5 m, and accuracy smaller than 5 cm was obtained at 50 and 75 m in an outdoor environment. A theoretical model was derived for predicting the path loss and the influence of the most important ground reflection. At the same time, the average energy consumption of the hardware was very low with only 81 mA for a tag node and 63 mA for the active anchor nodes, permitting the system to run for several days on a mobile battery pack and allowing easy and fast deployment on sites without an accessible power supply or backbone network. The UWB hardware platform demonstrated flexibility, easy installation, and low power consumption

Time-Scale Domain Characterization of Time-Varying Ultrawideband Infostation Channel

The time-scale domain geometrical-based method for the characterization of the time varying ultrawideband (UWB) channel typical of an infostation channel is presented. Compared to methods that use Doppler shift as a measure of time-variation in the channel this model provides a more reliable measure of frequency dispersion caused by terminal mobility in the UWB infostation channel. Particularly, it offers carrier frequency independent method of computing wideband channel responses and parameters which are important for ultrawideband systems. Results show that the frequency dispersion of the channel depends on the frequency and not on the choice of bandwidth. And time dispersion depends on bandwidth and not on the frequency. It is also shown that for time-varying UWB, frame length defined over the coherence time obtained with reference to the carrier frequency results in an error margin which can be reduced by using the coherence time defined with respect to the maximum frequency in a given frequency band. And the estimation of the frequency offset using the time-scale domain (wideband) model presented here (especially in the case of multiband UWB frequency synchronization) is more accurate than using frequency offset estimate obtained from narrowband models

A Tri-band-notched UWB Antenna with Low Mutual Coupling between the Band-notched Structures

A compact printed U-shape ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with triple band-notched characteristics is presented. The proposed antenna, with compact size of 24×33 mm2, yields an impedance bandwidth of 2.8-12GHz for VSWR<2, except the notched bands. The notched bands are realized by introducing two different types of slots. Two C-shape half-wavelength slots are etched on the radiating patch to obtain two notched bands in 3.3-3.7GHz for WiMAX and 7.25-7.75GHz for downlink of X-band satellite communication systems. In order to minimize the mutual coupling between the band-notched structures, the middle notched band in 5-6GHz for WLAN is achieved by using a U-slot defected ground structure. The parametric study is carried out to understand the mutual coupling. Surface current distributions and equivalent circuit are used to illustrate the notched mechanism. The performance of this antenna both by simulation and by experiment indicates that the proposed antenna is suitable and a good candidate for UWB applications

Improved reception of in-body signals by means of a wearable multi-antenna system

High data-rate wireless communication for in-body human implants is mainly performed in the 402-405 MHz Medical Implant Communication System band and the 2.45 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical band. The latter band offers larger bandwidth, enabling high-resolution live video transmission. Although in-body signal attenuation is larger, at least 29 dB more power may be transmitted in this band and the antenna efficiency for compact antennas at 2.45 GHz is also up to 10 times higher. Moreover, at the receive side, one can exploit the large surface provided by a garment by deploying multiple compact highly efficient wearable antennas, capturing the signals transmitted by the implant directly at the body surface, yielding stronger signals and reducing interference. In this paper, we implement a reliable 3.5 Mbps wearable textile multi-antenna system suitable for integration into a jacket worn by a patient, and evaluate its potential to improve the In-to-Out Body wireless link reliability by means of spatial receive diversity in a standardized measurement setup. We derive the optimal distribution and the minimum number of on-body antennas required to ensure signal levels that are large enough for real-time wireless endoscopy-capsule applications, at varying positions and orientations of the implant in the human body

Implementation and Investigation of a Compact Circular Wide Slot UWB Antenna with Dual Notched Band Characteristics using Stepped Impedance Resonators

A coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with dual notched band characteristics is presented in this paper. The circular wide slot and circular radiation patch are utilized to broaden the impedance bandwidth of the UWB antenna. The dual notched band functions are achieved by employing two stepped impedance resonators (SIRs) which etched on the circular radiation patch and CPW excitation line, respectively. The two notched bands can be controlled by adjusting the dimensions of the two stepped impedance resonators which give tunable notched band functions. The proposed dual notched band UWB antenna has been designed in details and optimized by means of HFSS. Experimental and numerical results show that the proposed antenna with compact size of 32 × 24 mm2, has an impedance bandwidth range from 2.8 GHz to 13.5 Hz for voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR) less than 2, except the notch bands 5.0 GHz - 6.2 GHz for HIPERLAN/2 and IEEE 802.11a (5.1 GHz - 5.9 GHz) and 8.0 GHz - 9.3 GHz for satellite and military applications

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