The 60 GHz band is a great prospect to meet the future demand for short-range indoor communication requiring wide bandwidth and high data rates. This paper presents the design of a 60 GHz printed Q-slot patch antenna for body-centric communication. The Q-slot has a slot gap of 0.2 mm and is etched on a 6.5 mm × 11 mm rectangular patch. The slotted patch is mounted on an FR-4 (Flame Retardant) substrate that is 1.6 mm thick and has a relative permittivity of 4.3. With a partial ground plane of length of 2.2 mm, the antenna’s overall dimension is 12.9 mm × 14 mm × 1.6 mm. Computer Simulation Technology (CST) microwave studio was used to design and simulate the antenna. In free space, the antenna is resonant at 60.06 GHz with an impedance bandwidth of 12.11 GHz. At 60 GHz, the antenna’s radiation efficiency is 82.15%, with a maximum gain of 8.62 dBi. For further analysis, parametric changes were made to observe the effect on return loss, radiation efficiency, and gain. The antenna was simulated on a three-layer human torso phantom for the on-body scenario. The antenna’s resonant frequency shifted slightly to the right at 2 mm distant from the phantom while maintaining a very wide impedance bandwidth. At this point, the antenna’s radiation efficiency dropped to 56.68% and gradually increased to 74.04% at 10 mm. The maximum gain remained largely unaffected, but some grated radiation patterns were observed.

The future of wireless technology is moving towards millimeter wave bands due to a surge in the use of wearable gadgets in current wireless bands. The 60 GHz band is unlicensed around the world and has gathered high research interest. At this band, the atmospheric absorption is very high, which results in short-range communication. High gain antennas are a core requirement for operating at 60 GHz. In this paper, we are proposing three different arrays consisting of 2, 3, and 4 elements of a novel patch design. The radiating patch consists of a semicircular disc fed by a microstrip feed line. The ground plane has been etched into a novel shape. The radiator and the ground plane are attached to a 1.5 mm thick FR-4 substrate which has a relative permittivity of 4.3. The radiating elements are connected linearly to form arrays. In free space, all three arrays achieved a very wide bandwidth of more than 20 GHz, and the maximum gain varied from 3.44 dBi to 6.2 dBi. The arrays were also simulated under human body conditions by modelling a three-layer phantom. At different distances from the phantom, the maximum gain increased by more than 1 dBi. The antenna shows 4.855 dBi, 5.032 dBi, and 6.66 dBi gain for 2 array, 3 array, and 4 array, respectively, when simulated on the three-layer human model phantom. The antenna has a very good VSWR value for all three array structures. On the human body phantom, the proposed antenna design in this research shows 1.214, 1.120, and 1.023 VSWR values for 2 array, 3 array, and 4 array, respectively. The efficiencies were highly affected, as expected from patch antennas. The simulation results are obtained from CST Microwave Studio.

A 60 GHz compact and novel shaped microstrip-fed antenna based on a textile substrate for body-centric communications has been proposed in this paper. The antenna has a partial ground, and the textile substrate is made up of 1.5 mm thick 100% polyester. Two rectangular sections from the patch antenna’s radiator were removed to give the antenna a swan-shaped appearance. The antenna was designed and simulated using computer simulation technology (CST) microwave studio software. Simulated results show that, in free-space, the antenna achieved a high bandwidth of 11.6 GHz with a center frequency of 60.01 GHz. With 89.4% radiation efficiency, the maximum gain of the antenna was 8.535 dBi. For the on-body scenario, the antenna was simulated over five different distances from a human torso phantom. At the closest distance from the phantom, the antenna’s gain was 5.27 dBi, while the radiation dropped significantly to 63%. The highest bandwidth of 12.27 GHz was attained at 8 mm, while the lowest bandwidth of 5.012 GHz was attained at 4 mm away from the phantom. Gain and radiation efficiency were comparable to free-space results at the furthest distance. The antenna was also simulated with ten different textile substrates for both free-space and on-body scenarios. Among these ten substrates, denim, tween, and Quartzel fabric had similar performance results as polyester. This design achieved similar performance compared to other 60 GHz textile antennas while being a bit more compact. This antenna will be a promising choice for body-centric communications because of its compact size, textile-based substrate, and excellent on-body performance.

In this study, the design of a compact and novel millimeter wave cotton textile-based wearable antenna for body-centric communications in healthcare applications is presented. The free space and on-body antenna performance parameters for the proposed antenna at 60 GHz are investigated and analyzed. The antenna is based on a 1.5 mm thick cotton substrate and has an overall dimension of 7.0 × 4.5 × 1.5 mm3. In free space, the antenna is resonant at 60 GHz and achieves a wide impedance bandwidth. The maximum gain at this resonant frequency is 6.74 dBi, and the radiation efficiency is 93.30%. Parametric changes were carried out to study the changes in the resonant frequency, gain, and radiation efficiency. For body-centric communications, the antenna was simulated at 5 different distances from a three-layer human torso-equivalent phantom. The radiation efficiency dropped by 24% and gradually increased with the gap distance. The antenna design was also analyzed by using 10 different textile substrates for both free space and on-body scenarios. The major benefits of the antenna are discussed as follows. Compared to a previous work, the antenna is very efficient, compact, and has a wide bandwidth. In BCWCs for e-health applications, the antenna needs to be very compact due to the longer battery life, and it has to have a wide bandwidth for high data rate communication. Since the antenna will be wearable with a sensor system, the shape of the antenna needs to be planar, and it is better to design the antenna on a textile substrate for integration into clothes. The antenna also needs to show high gain and efficiency for power-efficient communication. This proposed antenna meets all these criteria, and hence, it will be a good candidate for BCWCs in e-health applications.

A compact 5G wideband antenna for body-centric network (BCN) operating on Ka band has been presented in this paper. The design of the antenna consists of a very simple key-shaped radiator patch with a vertical slot for better impedance matching. The antenna was designed and simulated with the help of the Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave Studio Suite, a well-liked and dependable electromagnetic simulation program running on Microsoft Windows. Free-space simulation produces a resonant frequency at 28 GHz, which falls under the Ka band and 5G’s n257, more precisely n261. The proposed antenna has a size of 1.24 λ × 0.6 λ × 0.153 λ and has a wider impedance bandwidth of more than 20 GHz. The antenna’s gain and radiation efficiency are 3.87 dBi and 70%, respectively, at the resonant point. Further parametric studies reveal that the antenna can be activated in the V-band by increasing the feedline width. The antenna is proposed for the application of BCN. Therefore, a three-dimensional human torso phantom was developed virtually to test on-body performance. The on-body findings of this antenna were resimulated by positioning the antenna in close proximity to the three-layer human body model, where 22.5 dB of on-body reflection coefficient was recorded at 28 GHz. Simulated on-body gain and efficiency were 4.56 dBi and 61.33 percent, respectively. A distance-based investigation was conducted to investigate the impacts of the human body’s presence by positioning the antenna at five different distances from the human torso model. The findings were compared to assess how distance affects its behaviors. The antenna’s gap was kept at 6 mm for the optimum results, which included 4.83 dBi of gain with a 66 percent efficiency and a recorded RL value of about 23 dB. The on-body simulations produced very consistent results with a slight deviation after 26.5 GHz, even though the distance was varied.

The advancement of wireless technology has led to an exponential increase in the usage of smart wearable devices. Current wireless bands are getting more congested, and we are already seeing a shift towards millimeter wave bands. This paper proposes a design for a millimeter wave textile antenna for body-centric communications. The antenna has a quasi-self-complementary (QSC) structure. The radiating patch is a semicircular disc with a radius of 1.855 mm and is fed by a 5.07 mm long, 0.70 mm wide microstrip feedline. A complementary leaf-shaped slot is etched in the ground plane. The radiating disc and the ground plane are attached to a 1.5 mm thick nonconducting 100% polyester substrate. The antenna has an overall dimension of 10   mm × 7.00   mm . In free space, the antenna achieved a superwideband impedance bandwidth that covers the Ka, V, and W bands designated by IEEE. At 60 GHz, the antenna’s radiation efficiency was 89.06%, with a maximum gain of 5.7 dBi. Millimeter waves are easily blocked by obstacles and have low skin penetration depth. On-body investigations were carried out by placing the antenna on a human phantom at five different distances. No significant amount of back radiation was observed. The radiation efficiency decreased to 67.48% at 2 mm away from the phantom, while the maximum gain slightly increased. The efficiency and radiation patterns improved as the distance between the antenna and the phantom gradually increased. Ten different textile substrates were also used to test the antenna. With a few exceptions, the free space and on-body simulation results were very similar to polyester. The design and simulation of the antenna were carried out using the CST microwave studio.

A new self-complimentary compact antenna operating at 60 GHz within the millimeter wave frequency range has been presented in this paper. The design is intended for the wireless body-centric network (WBCN). The proposed compact design has a dimension of 4.5 × 6.03 × 1.59  mm3. The antenna was designed with multiple geometrical structures held upon a narrow feed line with a rectangular slot and parasitic elements to increase bandwidth. Free space simulations of the antenna produced optimistic results in terms of gain, radiation efficiency, and bandwidth; a maximum gain of 6.7 dB was achieved with an efficiency of 84.5%. Parametric studies were carried out to better understand its nature by modifying the key design aspects and comparing the outcomes. A 3D human torso phantom was virtually created with natural human body properties, and the on-body performance of the design was tested by placing the antenna in its near field. With some slight deviation from their peak performance, on-body simulations displayed better results in most of the cases. The antenna was positioned five different gaps from the torso for future investigations. The result of the distance-based study was amazingly good as the antenna performance was consistent throughout all distances. 10.77 GHz of bandwidth is found for the closest distance to the human torso, while the on-body radiation efficiency is also outstanding; the minimum radiation efficiency recorded is 73.78 when the antenna is just a couple of millimeters away. Overall, the comparison shows that the antenna worked best when it was placed only 2 mm apart from the body. Investigation indicates the antenna is a promising candidate for BCN applications because of its wider bandwidth and better on-body efficiency.

A design of a self-complementary dual-band fifth-generation (5G) antenna for a wireless body area network (WBAN) has been presented in this paper. Like many other advantages, dual-band antennas have the benefit of being able to establish a reliable wireless connection in places that are frequently out of reach. The antenna operates at two popular 5G NR, FR-2 frequency bands: n257, or 28 GHz, and n260, or 39 GHz. FR-2 bands are prominent for high-speed data transactions within a limited range, which is perfect for WBAN applications. The proposed self-complementary single element design has a physical size of 6   mm × 8   mm × 1.59   mm and is designed with a Rogers RT6002 substrate with a dielectric constant of 2.94. In free space simulations, the antenna performed satisfactorily, achieving around 90% efficiency and having return losses of 16.32 dB and 20.47 dB at the lower and upper frequency bands sequentially. The antenna generated almost omnidirectional patterns at both frequencies with a peak gain of 4.74 dB. By placing the antenna next to a 3D human torso phantom that had been digitally created with accurate human body features, the design’s onbody performance was assessed. Onbody simulations produced favorable performance with a small dispersion from their peak values in some parameters, i.e., efficiency and reflection coefficients but produced more gains: 4.34 dBi at 28 GHz and 6.19 dBi at 39 GHz. For further distance-based investigation, the antenna was placed in five different positions relative to the torso. The test yields 67% efficiency with the minimum gap and 71% at the highest distance from the human body for the lowest band. Though the lower-frequency band produces better results with more gaps, the higher-frequency band performs consistently better in even the closest placement to the human body model by reaching more than 6 dB of gain with above 81% efficiency and wider than 10 GHz of bandwidth. The overall performance indicates this design can be a good solution to complex WBAN scenarios.