Flexible Electromagnetic Phantom with Electrotextile Backing

This paper introduces the first flexible skin-equivalent phantom operating in the millimeter-wave (mmW) range. Its thin and flexible structure makes it suitable for the performance testing of human-centered wireless devices, where mechanical reconfigurability of a planar or conformal surface representing the human body is needed. It consists of a homogeneous layer of carbon powder mixed with silicone, backed by an electrotextile on one side. The thickness and composition of the dielectric layer are optimized to reproduce the reflection coefficient at the air/skin interface around 60 GHz. The maximum relative error between the reflection coefficient of the phantom and the one of human skin is within 3.5% in magnitude and 16.2% in phase.