Abstract
A sixteen‐port circularly polarized (CP) ultrawideband (UWB) multiple‐input−multiple‐output (MIMO) belt antenna is designed and developed for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications. The proposed antenna comprises sixteen modified octagon‐like ring antenna elements with a common ground. These antenna elements are designed on leather material and can be worn as a belt. Each antenna element contains a microstrip line feed and a modified octagon‐like open‐ended ring radiator to generate circular polarization. The belt antenna provides an impedance bandwidth (S11 ≤ −10 dB) of 3.08–11 GHz (112.5%) and a 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth (ARBW) of 4.7–7.07 GHz (40.27%). The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) amongst the resonating elements is <0.003. Additionally, the bending analysis and specific absorption rate (SAR) of the presented antenna are examined. The overall size of the belt antenna is 30 mm × 574 mm × 1 mm. The designed belt antenna is suitable for WBAN applications due to its leather material, good on‐body performance, and nearly identical simulated and experimental results.