A low profile artificial magnetic conductor based tri-band antenna for wearable applications

A wearable flexible tri-annular square ring monopole antenna with artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is proposed. The antenna operates at the ISM band (2.28-2.51 GHz, 5.2-6 GHz) and at WiMAX band (3.5-4GHz) for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications. The number of antenna operating bands is determined by the number of square rings. A tri-band AMC array is integrated to reduce the specific absorption rate (SAR) and the antenna profile. The overall size of antenna with AMC array is 90 x 90 x 6 mm(3). The peak gain of the antenna is 4.8, 5.1, and 6.2 dBi at three frequency bands, respectively. The proposed antenna and AMC were printed on a flexible polyimide film. The antenna has good conformity, easy processing, lightweight and low profile of 0.048 lambda(0) at 2.4 GHz. The antenna was fabricated and measured where a very good agreement between simulated and measured results for S-11 and radiation pattern. The measured antenna radiation efficiency is more than 70% in the operating frequency band.

Automated summary

The wearable flexible antenna proposed in this study, integrated with artificial magnetic conductor, operates at multiple frequency bands and has good conformity and performance for wireless body area network applications.