2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)

Conformal Wearable Monopole Antenna Backed by a

Compact EBG Structure for Body Area Networks
Marco A. Antoniades1, M. Ali Babar Abbasi2, Marija Nikolic3, Photos Vryonides2, Symeon Nikolaou2
1
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus, [email protected]
2
Electrical Engineering Department, Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus, [email protected]
3
School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, [email protected]

AbstractA compact planar monopole antenna backed by

an electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure is presented. The
antenna is conformal to the human body and is intended for
wearable applications in wireless body area networks. It
operates at 2.45 GHz, and is fabricated on a 68mm by 38mm
by 1.57mm semi-flexible substrate. The performance of the
antenna does not degrade with structural bends along both of
its axes, thus making it robust to structural deformation. In all
cases it maintains a fractional impedance bandwidth in the
range of 5%, with a gain ranging from 6.3 to 6.7 dBi. The
antenna performance is also insensitive to the antenna location
on the human body. For placements of the antenna on the arm,
chest and leg, it maintained a 5% impedance bandwidth with (a) (b)
radiation efficiencies above 70% and an average gain of 7.3
dBi. Fig. 1. (a) 3D view, and (b) top view of the compact wearable 21 EBG-
backed planar monopole antenna with full ground plane. The antenna is
Index Termsantenna, electromagnetic band gap, fabricated on a semi-flexible Rogers RT/duroid 5880 substrate with r = 2.2
conformal, planar monopole, wearable. and tan = 0.0009.

I. INTRODUCTION
The growth in demand for wearable physiological II. DESIGN
sensors that can monitor vital signs, has led to the The proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 1, and was
development of wireless body area networks (WBANs), designed to operate in the 2.45 GHz ISM band. It consists of
which can communicate a patients bio-sensory data off of a planar monopole that is printed on the top of a semi-
the body to a personalized health care system. This has flexible Rogers RT/duroid 5880 substrate with thickness d1.
created a commensurate need for specialized antenna designs The monopole is fed with a coaxial cable via a short section
that can operate effectively in a body-worn scenario [1], [2]. of microstrip line whose partial ground is on the bottom side
Wearable antennas for WBAN applications are required to of the substrate. Also printed on the bottom side of the
be compact, efficient, mechanically robust, and should be substrate, and adjacent to the partial ground plane, are two
easily integrated within a body-worn sensor node. square split ring resonators. In order to form an EBG
Furthermore, the radiation and impedance characteristics of structure with controllable reflection phase, the split ring
the antenna should not be affected by the location of the resonators are backed by a full ground plane that is placed at
sensor on the body and it should be easily made conformal to a distance d2 beneath the substrate. A single grounded split
the bodys surface. Various designs have been presented that ring resonator forms a unit cell of the EBG structure. Finally,
exhibit desirable characteristics for wearable applications. a thin foam spacer is used to separate the substrate from the
Notable amongst these are an EBG-backed planar monopole full ground plane. Another function of the full ground plane
antenna that is inkjet printed on a paper substrate [3], a dual- is to provide isolation between the top radiating structure and
band magneto-electric dipole antenna [4], and a dipole array the human body tissue underneath it. Thus, it naturally
acting as a modulated frequency selective surface [5]. enables the antenna to exhibit platform-independent
This paper presents a compact wearable planar monopole properties.
antenna that is backed by an EBG structure, which is made The antenna shown in Fig. 1 is a significantly more
conformal to the human body by bending the antenna along compact version of the one presented in [6], where a 32
one of its axes for different values of the curvature radius. array of EBG unit cells was used in order to back the planar
The performance of the antenna does not degrade with a monopole. The EBG structure was initially designed so that
change in the curvature radius, thus making it robust to the location of the surface-wave bandgap of the EBG layer
structural deformation. Furthermore, the antenna corresponds with the frequency region where the planar
performance is insensitive to the location that it is placed on monopole antenna is well matched [7]. Thus, a combined
the human body. operating frequency band for the EBG-backed monopole

978-88-907018-7-0/17/$31.00 2017 IEEE 164 #1570318577

 2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)

TABLE I 0

DIMENSIONS OF THE EBG-BACKED PLANAR MONOPOLE ANTENNA OF FIG. 1

-10

Length Length

S11 (dB)
parameter parameter -20
(mm) (mm) Rx=40mm Meas.
Rx=40mm
Sw 38.00 W1 27.83 Rx=30mm
-30
Sl 68.00 W2 06.40 Rx=20mm
Rx=15mm
Gw 38.00 L1 25.30 -40
Gl 68.00 L2 06.32 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5
Frequency (GHz)
2.6 2.7 2.8

d1 01.57 Ml 40.00 (a)

d2 05.00 Mw 01.80
T1 02.53 g1 00.75 330
0
30 330
0
30
T2 03.34 g2 02.50 0 0
Cw 02.78 gndl 10.50 300 -10 60 300 -10 60
-20 -20
-30 -30
-40 -40
270 90 270 90

240 120 240 120

210 150 210 150

180 180

Rx=40mm Meas. Rx=40mm Rx=30mm Rx=20mm Rx=15mm

(b) (c)

Fig. 3. Several cases of structural deformation along the x-axis shown in

(a) (b) Fig. 2 (top row). (a) Simulated and measured reflection coefficient.
Radiation patterns of the antenna in the (b) y-z plane and (c) x-z plane.
Fig. 2. (a) Structurally deformed 21 EBG-backed monopole antenna with
different values of curvature radius, ranging from Rx = 15 mm to 40 mm
0
along the x-axis and from Ry = 50 mm to 80 mm along the y-axis. (b)
Photographs of deformed antenna. -5

-10
S11 (dB)

antenna was created. This was achieved by varying the Ry=80mm Meas.

dimensions of the split ring resonator and the gap d2 until the -15 Ry=80mm
Ry=70mm
frequency region where the EBG reflection phase was in the -20 Ry=60mm

range of 9045 coincided with the frequency region where -25

Ry=50mm

the monopole was impedance matched [8]. Subsequently, the

2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8
Frequency (GHz)
size of the EBG backing array was reduced from a 32 array (a)
to a 21 array, while ensuring that the reflection phase and 0 0
impedance characteristics of the antenna did not significantly 330 30 330 30
0 0
degrade. The final dimensions of the optimized antenna are 300 -10 60 300 -10 60
shown in Table I. -30
-20
-30
-20

-40 -40
270 90 270 90
III. ANTENNA PERFORMANCE
A. Structural Deformation 240 120 240 120

For wearable applications, the designed antennas should 210 150 210 150
180 180
be able to conform to the surface of the body, therefore they
must be able to withstand a certain amount of structural Ry=80mm Meas. Ry=80mm Ry=70mm Ry=60mm Ry=50mm
deformation. Fig. 2 shows various degrees of structural (b) (c)
deformation of the EBG-backed monopole antenna along
both of its axes. Along the top row of Fig. 2 the antenna is Fig. 4. Several cases of structural deformation along the y-axis shown in
Fig. 2 (bottom row). (a) Simulated and measured reflection coefficient.
bent along the x-axis with curvature radii ranging from Rx = Radiation patterns of the antenna in the (b) y-z plane and (c) x-z plane.
15 to 40 mm. Along the bottom row of Fig. 2 the antenna is
bent along the y-axis with curvature radii ranging from Ry = frequency of 2.45 GHz, and that the reflection coefficient
50 to 80 mm. Also shown in Fig. 2 (b) are the photographs of remains largely invariant to even large amounts of
the fabricated antennas that have been deformed along the deformation. The 10 dB fractional impedance bandwidth is
two axes. in the range of 5% for all the cases. Fig. 3 (b), (c) and Fig. 4
Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show the simulated and measured (b), (c) show the radiation patterns in both the y-z and x-z
effects of the structural deformation along both of the planes. It can be observed that the antenna exhibits
antenna axes. It can be observed from Fig. 3 (a) and Fig. 4 directional properties in both the planes, and also that these
(a) that the antenna is well matched around the design remain largely invariant to the structural deformation. The

165 #1570318577
 2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)

0 IV. CONCLUSION
-10
A compact planar monopole antenna backed by an EBG
structure has been presented for operation in the 2.45 GHz
S11 (dB)

-20 ISM band. The antenna is structurally simple, has a low

On Chest Meas.

-30
On Leg Meas. profile, and can be shaped conformally to the surface of the
On Arm Meas. human body. It is therefore ideal for wearable applications
Free space Meas.
-40
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8
for off-body communication in wireless body area networks.
Frequency (GHz)
(a) REFERENCES
[1] C. Roblin, et al. "Antenna design and channel modeling in the BAN
contextpart I: antennas." in Annals of Telecommunications, vol. 66,
no. 3, pp. 139-155, Jan. 2011.
[2] G. Fang, E. Dutkiewicz, M. A. Huq, R. Vesilo and Y. Yang, "Medical
body area networks: opportunities, challenges and practices," in 2011
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(b) Technologies (ISCIT), pp. 562-567, Oct. 2011.
[3] S. Kim, Y. J. Ren, H. Lee, A. Rida, S. Nikolaou and M. M. Tentzeris,
Fig. 5. (a) Measured reflection coefficient of the 21 EBG-backed "Monopole Antenna With Inkjet-Printed EBG Array on Paper
monopole antenna placed on different parts of the human body. (b) Substrate for Wearable Applications," in IEEE Antennas and Wireless
Photograph of the antenna placed on the arm. Propagation Letters, vol. 11, no. , pp. 663-666, 2012.
[4] S. Yan, P. J. Soh and G. A. E. Vandenbosch, "Wearable Dual-Band
Magneto-Electric Dipole Antenna for WBAN/WLAN Applications,"
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average simulated gain of the antennas deformed along the x- pp. 4165-4169, Sept. 2015.
axis was 6.6 dBi, compared to a measured gain of 6.7 dBi for [5] J. Lorenzo, A. Lzaro, R. Villarino and D. Girbau, "Modulated
the case of Rx = 40 mm. Similarly, the average simulated frequency selective surfaces for wearable RFID and sensor
gain of the antennas deformed along the y-axis was 6.3 dBi, applications," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol.
compared to a measured gain of 6.4 dBi for the case of Ry = 64, no. 10, pp. 4447-4456, Oct. 2016.
80 mm. [6] M.A.B. Abbasi, S. Nikolaou and M.A. Antoniades, "A high gain EBG
backed monopole for MBAN off-body communication," in Proc.
B. Human Body Placement IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation
(APSURSI), Fajardo, PR, Jun. 2016, pp.1-2.
The radiation patterns shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 [7] M. Tang, S. Xiao, T. Deng and B. Wang, "Novel folded single split
demonstrate that the compact EBG-backed antenna exhibits ring resonator and its application to eliminate scan blindness in
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of the antenna on the human body should not significantly
[8] Y. Fan, Y. Rahmat-Samii, "Reflection phase characterizations of the
affect its performance. This was verified through a series of EBG ground plane for low profile wire antenna applications," in
measurements of the fabricated antenna with a curvature IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, , vol. 51, no. 10,
radius of Rx = 40 mm on various parts of the human body, pp. 2691-2703, Oct. 2003.
including the arm, chest and leg. The measured results for
the reflection coefficient are shown in Fig. 5. It can be
observed that in all cases a good impedance match is
maintained around the design frequency of 2.45 GHz. The
results are also stable with respect to the body placement,
with very little variation between the cases shown.
Additionally, the on-body performance of the antenna is very
similar to that of the antenna in free space, indicating that the
antenna performance is largely platform-independent. This is
a particularly advantageous feature, since many other
antenna designs suffer performance degradation in the form
of impedance mismatch and gain reduction when placed on
the human body. In all cases the antenna maintains a 10 dB
fractional impedance bandwidth in the range of 5%. Finally,
for all of the body placements shown, the radiation efficiency
of the antenna remained above 70%, with an average gain of
7.3 dBi. The small increase in gain compared to the designs
presented in Section III.A, is due to the fact that the human
body beneath the antenna acts as an extension of the ground
plane, thus increasing the gain in the forward direction.

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