Characteristics of an Embedded Microstrip Patch Antenna for Wireless Infrastructure Health Monitoring

Structural health monitoring using embeddable wireless sensors is a promising research area. Once embedded the wireless sensor antenna must operate efficiently in order to support data communication as well as battery charging using an integrated rectifying antenna (rectenna). In this paper the characteristics of an embedded microstrip patch antenna within concrete is studied as function of the air-gap and the concrete dielectric constant and loss tangent