A compact and economical AMC backed antenna solution for wearable biomedical applications

Abstract

A rectangular monopole antenna with an extended ground, excited by Coplanar Waveguide (CPW) and backed by a 6 × 6 array of fractal artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) unit cells, resonating at 5.8 GHz in Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band, is presented in this manuscript. To attain the objective of proposing a compact and economical antenna solution for employment in wearable biomedical domain, a novel approach of utilizing both surfaces of the same dielectric for engraving antenna element as well as AMC array is adopted. It results in the elimination of layers of expensive substrate (RO3003) and of thick separator (foam) between antenna and AMC array. During measurement in open space, the proposed antenna system exhibited an impedance bandwidth of 570 MHz with a gain of 7.9 dBi. While a total realized gain of 7.5 dBi, amounting to a gain enhancement of about 3 dB as compared to that of monopole alone, is observed when the integrated antenna system is placed just over a three-layer rectangular human body equivalent model. Specific absorption rate values, as calculated at 5.8 GHz and averaged over 1 and 10 g of human tissue, are 0.0117 and 0.00244 W/kg, respectively. Obtained results strongly advocate the use of the proposed antenna system in smart wearable healthcare devices.