Low-profile Pattern Reconfigurable Antenna for Wireless Body Area Networks

In this paper a simple, low-profile pattern reconfigurable antenna with a full-ground plane operating at 5.8 GHz is presented. The antenna consists of a centre-fed circular patch, and a parasitic ring surrounding it. The ring is loaded with a rectangular slot on each side of the patch, and switchable stubs are added in the centre of each slot. With all the stubs in on-state, the antenna presents monopole-like radiation patterns with the gain of 4.4 dB for maximum coverage on the body, whereas the pattern of the antenna can be directed to ± 16 degrees with an increased gain of 2.3 dB, by toggling the stubs for the semidirectional patterns states. Numerical studies are carried out using ANSYS HFSS and preliminary results are presented.