UWB All-Textile Antenna With Full Ground Plane for Off-Body WBAN Communications

Author

Samal, Purna B. ; Soh, Ping Jack ; Vandenbosch, Guy A. E.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Volume

62

Issue

1

fYear

2014

fDate

Jan. 2014

Firstpage

102

Lastpage

108

Abstract

A fully textile microstrip topology with ultra wideband (UWB) characteristics useful in wireless body area networks (WBAN) is proposed. The antenna is operable within the full UWB band and incorporates a full textile shielding ground plane. The full ground plane is shown to be crucial in maintaining the performance when worn on-body. It successfully reduces any on-body performance degradation, resulting in a very robust structure. A detailed numerical and experimental evaluation of the antenna is performed in free space and on body.

Keywords

body area networks; microstrip antennas; textiles; ultra wideband antennas; wearable antennas; UWB all-textile antenna; full ground plane; fully textile microstrip topology; off-body WBAN communication; on-body performance degradation; ultra wideband antenna; ultra wideband characteristic; wireless body area network; Antenna radiation patterns; Feeds; Gain; Microstrip; Topology; Ultra wideband antennas; Wireless communication; Conformal antennas; directive antennas; ultra wideband (UWB) antennas; wireless body area network (WBAN);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-926X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TAP.2013.2287526

Filename

6650114