Wearable fabric antenna on upper arm for MedRadio band applications with reconfigurable beam capability

Author

Seonghun Kang ; Chang Won Jung

Author_Institution

Grad. Sch. of NID Fusion Technol., Seoul Nat. Univ. of Sci. & Technol., Seoul, South Korea

Volume

51

Issue

17

fYear

2015

Firstpage

1314

Lastpage

1316

Abstract

A wearable fabric antenna on the upper arm is presented for on-body applications in the MedRadio band. The antenna was manufactured on a fabric substrate and operated at the Medical Device Radio Communications Service band (MedRadio band: 401-406 MHz). The antenna was designed to steer the beam directions. The use of two artificial switches enables a beam-steering capability. The dimensions of the proposed antenna are 50 × 20.5 × 0.66 mm³ (676.5 mm³), and it utilises a fabric substrate (ε_r = 1.92, tan δ = 0.023). A one-layer skin model (ε_r = 46.74, σ = 0.69 S/m) is adopted for antenna simulation and measurement.

Keywords

UHF antennas; antenna radiation patterns; beam steering; biomedical communication; biomedical equipment; skin; software radio; wearable antennas; MedRadio band applications; antenna measurement; antenna simulation; artificial switches; beam direction steering; beam steering capability; fabric substrate; frequency 401 MHz to 406 MHz; medical device radio communication service band; on-body applications; one-layer skin model; reconfigurable beam capability; upper arm; wearable fabric antenna;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electronics Letters

Publisher

iet

ISSN

0013-5194

Type

jour

DOI

10.1049/el.2015.2105

Filename

7199730