Design Of Realistic Wearable Antenna Considering Superstrate And Human Body Perturbations

Abstract

One of the latest trends in wireless technology is wearable antennas. This type of antenna needs to be flexible, lightweight and compact as they are meant to be a part of clothing and body. Properties of the textile antenna such as efficiency, input impedance, bandwidth etc. depend upon the type of substrate material used. These properties are mostly determined by the substrate dielectric constant. This paper describes the design of 2 types of rectangular microstrip patch antenna for on-body wireless communications in the 2.4GHz WLAN Band. In each design type, 3 different materials have been used as the dielectric substrate. The structure is simple, compact and easy to manufacture by using textile materials. The first design consists of three layers namely patch, substrate and ground plane. The second design consists of five layers namely superstrate, patch, substrate, ground plane and a tissue layer having properties similar to that of skin. The materials used as the substrate and superstrate for the 3 antennas are polyester, cordura and lycra. The patch and the ground plane in each of the 3 antennas have been made of copper. The simulation has been done using IE3D software. These antennas have a wide range of applications, especially in the field of healthcare.