A Circularly Polarized, Flexible and Compact Quad-Band Wearable Antenna for Off-Body Communication Applications

Abstract

A compact wearable textile antenna with multiband and circular polarization characteristics is proposed in this work for Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN). An asymmetrically connected vertical stub as a radiator with the partial ground for quad-band (3.03–3.76[Formula: see text]GHz, 5.48–6.24[Formula: see text]GHz, 7.10–7.40[Formula: see text]GHz, 7.93–8.22[Formula: see text]GHz) operation and horizontal stubs on the radiator with L-slots in the ground is proposed for the triple band (3.16–3.22[Formula: see text]GHz, 7.25–7.36[Formula: see text]GHz and 7.93–8.08[Formula: see text]GHz) circularly polarized radiation. Jeans fabric is used as substrate with dielectric constant [Formula: see text] and loss tangent ([Formula: see text]). The dimensions of the proposed antenna are [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mm3. Various conductive fabrics are investigated and analyzed as a radiating element. The proposed jeans antenna provides the gain ([Formula: see text] dB) and radiation efficiency ([Formula: see text]%) for all operating bands. The impact of the human body right arm loading on the antenna has been presented in terms of the reflection coefficient ([Formula: see text]) and gain using the CST Microwave studio simulation environment. The proposed antenna provides stable performance under bending conditions and the SAR values that are under acceptable limits ([Formula: see text][Formula: see text]W/kg for 10[Formula: see text]g of tissue). The flexibility, compactness and radiation properties make it suitable as a wearable textile antenna for off-body communication applications.