On-Body Conformal Antenna for In–Body Communication

A novel on-body antenna is proposed to operate for biomedical applications including, wireless body area network (WBAN) and breast cancer detection. The antenna is principally designed for in-body communication over the frequency band 8.5- 14.0 GHz. This antenna is designed as a patch of double-ring shape printed on a circular flexible substrate backed by a conducting (ground) disc. The antenna structure can be bent with the human body curvature to be conformal to the skin surface. During operation, this antenna is placed on the human body with the patch touching the skin surface and the ground oriented towards the free space. The proposed antenna is designed to maximize the power launched inside the human tissues and to minimize the power radiated into free space. The 3D distribution of the specific absorption rate (SAR) inside the human tissues is investigated by simulation. Also, the far field quantities such as the directivity, gain, radiation, and total efficiencies are investigated through simulation. The proposed antenna is fabricated and subjected to experimental investigation while being placed touching and conformal to the skin surface of the human body. The measurements show good agreement with the simulation results.