A Compact Dual Band Polyimide Based Antenna for Wearable and Flexible Telemedicine Devices

Abstract

Recent wearable health monitoring systems use multiple biosensors embedded within a wireless device. In order to reliably transmit the desired vital signs in such systems, a new set of antenna design requirements arise. In this paper, we present a flexible, ultra-low profile, and compact dual band antenna. The proposed design is suitable for wearable and flexible telemedicine systems and wireless body area networks (WBANs). The antenna is inkjet printed on a 50.8 µm Polyimide Kapton substrate and fed by a Coplanar Waveguide (CPW). The proposed design has the merits of compactness, light weight, wide bandwidth, high efficiency, and mechanical stability. The performance of the antenna is also characterized against bending and rolling effects to assess its behaviour in a realistic setup since it is expected to be rolled on curved surfaces when operated. The antenna is shown to exhibit very low susceptibility to performance degradation when tested against bending effects. Good radiation characteristics, reduced fabrication complexity, cost effectiveness, and excellent physical properties suggest that the proposed design is a feasible candidate for the targeted application.

Wide CPW-Fed Multiband Wearable Monopole Antenna with Extended Grounds for GSM/WLAN/WiMAX Applications

“…In the past few years, many single-, dual-, and multiband wearable antennas have been proposed [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. In previous works, different methods have been used for designing single-band wearable antennas, such as antennas with an electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure [1], antennas based on metamaterial structures [2,3], monopole antennas fed by CPW [4], and electrotextile patch antennas [5].…”

“…In previous works, different methods have been used for designing single-band wearable antennas, such as antennas with an electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure [1], antennas based on metamaterial structures [2,3], monopole antennas fed by CPW [4], and electrotextile patch antennas [5]. Similarly, dual-band wearable antennas fed by CPW on a polypropylene substrate, polygon-shaped slotted wearable antennas on a jean substrate, wearable antennas using a metasurface, polyimide-based wearable antennas, and dual-mode textile antennas on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate have been reported in [6][7][8][9][10]. In [11][12][13], a multiband body-borne antenna for GSM/PCS/WLAN communications, a multiband wearable antenna using a metal rim, and a quad-band wearable slot antenna with low SAR values have been presented.…”

A Yagi‐Uda antenna array for conformal IoT and wireless charging applications

“…More recently, we have witnessed an increased research activity aimed at the development of flexible electronics in response to the market analysis which indicates a growing need for light-weight, compact, and wearable devices. 6 Consequently, integrating flexible antenna arrays with such devices is eventually needed for advanced wireless platforms. Several antenna designs focused on maximizing the isolation and impedance bandwidths of the radiating structures have been reported in the literature.…”

A Flexible Planar Antenna on Multilayer Rubber Composite for Wearable Devices

“…The reflector is sandwiched between two 1.85 mm thick NBR composite layers (Layers 2 and 3). This topology is chosen due to its simplicity and because planar monopole and dipole antennas have received more attention over other antenna types especially in wearable and flexible applications [13].…”