On-body off-body dual mode microstrip antenna for Body Area Network applications

This paper describes the design, fabrication and test of a novel dual mode, on-body and off-body, planar microstrip antenna for Body Area Networks applications. The on-body antenna is obtained with a microstrip ring operating at a higher order mode while the off-body antenna is obtained with a meandered microstrip antenna. The antennas are fed separately but share a common ground plane and are disposed so that the occupied area is minimized.