Reconfigurable antenna options for 2.45/5 GHz wireless body area networks in healthcare applications

This paper presents electronically reconfigurable antenna options in healthcare applications. They are suitable for wireless body area network devices operating in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band at 2.45 GHz and IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) band at 5 GHz (5.15-5.35 GHz, 5.25-5.35 GHz). Two types of antennas are investigated: Antenna-I has a full ground plane and Antenna-II has a partial ground plane. The proposed antennas provide ISM operation in one mode while in another mode they support 5 GHz WLAN band. Their performance is assessed for body centric wireless communication using a simplified human body model. Antenna sensitivity to the gap between the antenna and the human body is investigated for both modes of each antenna. The proposed antennas exhibit a wide radiation pattern along the body surface to provide wide coverage and their small width (14mm) makes them suitable for on-body communication in healthcare applications.