A Free-Access Segmented Coplanar Waveguide for On-Body Communication

A segmented coplanar waveguide (SCPW) is presented in this paper to improve the propagation characteristics of on-body communication. The SCPW is connected electromagnetically by two half-wavelength resonators arranged on both sides of the center line. The resonators provide the function to couple the SCPW with the top and bottom antennas at arbitrary positions along the line, which is a unique feature of the proposed geometry. The basic performance of the SCPW was confirmed at 5.12 GHz by a thin dielectric substrate and at 2.45 GHz by a flexible paper substrate with a silver-ink conductor. The propagation loss is reduced more than 20 dB by this SCPW in on-body communication between abdomen and back sides, which is confirmed by the measurement using a phantom.