Novel Design of a Bandwidth Enhanced and Frequency Reconfigurable, Wearable Antenna for Body Centric Communication

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel design for a frequency reconfigurable and bandwidth-enhanced antenna for use in biomedical telemetry applications. Data pertaining to a patient’s body parameters, such as blood pressure, pulse, and temperature, are gathered using sensors and then transmitted to a remote place for monitoring. The proposed antenna is connected to a wearable transmitter, which transfers the body parameter data to a centrally located nearby control unit. The antenna operates in the 5.8 GHz band in single-band mode and in the 4.27 GHz (C band) and 5.8 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands in dual-band mode. The use of ethylene-vinyl acetate foam as a substrate makes the structure waterproof and ultraviolet resistant. The basic antenna structure equipped with proximity coupling offers a front-to-back ratio (FBR) of 17.62 dB and a bandwidth of 122 MHz. With an additional upper patch and resonant slots, bandwidth enhancement of 82.85% and 11.57% improvement in the FBR are achieved, respectively. Overall, a maximum FBR of 19.66 dB and gain of 5.0 dBi are attained over the resonant frequency. The specific absorption rate is found to be 0.145 W/kg for 10 gram of tissue.