Antennas worn on the human body for off-body\u3cbr/\u3ecommunication suffer from impedance detuning, a significant\u3cbr/\u3edrop in gain and efficiency due to the body degrading the antenna\u3cbr/\u3eperformance. An Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC), which is\u3cbr/\u3ea type of metamaterial could shield the antenna from radiating\u3cbr/\u3etowards the body, reducing the drop in gain and efficiency\u3cbr/\u3ewhile having sufficient impedance bandwidth and good coverage.\u3cbr/\u3eAn AMC backed Coplanar fed Inverted-F Antenna (CPW-IFA)\u3cbr/\u3eoperating at the 2.45 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical\u3cbr/\u3e(ISM) band was designed, simulated, fabricated and analyzed.\u3cbr/\u3eThe AMC was realized through a High Impedance Surface (HIS).\u3cbr/\u3eA unit cell is designed and a 2×2 array was used to back the CPWIFA\u3cbr/\u3eand then optimized. Results show that the novel antenna\u3cbr/\u3eis very robust to impedance detuning: the resonant frequency\u3cbr/\u3eshifting more than 50 times less than the reference CPW-IFA\u3cbr/\u3ewhen placed on the body. The simulated gain of 6.5 dBi and a 3\u3cbr/\u3edB beamwidth of 86° show good coverage away from the body.\u3cbr/\u3eThe gain of the antenna, when placed on the body, dropped only\u3cbr/\u3eby 0.8 dB while the radiation efficiency was 71% on the body. The\u3cbr/\u3ecompact 60 mm×60 mm×3.28 mm metamaterial backed antenna\u3cbr/\u3ewith a corresponding wavelength form factor of 0.5×0.5×0.027 is\u3cbr/\u3esuitable for integration with wearable electronics
