Influence of body placement on low profile UWB antenna off-body ranging performance

A study of human body influence on off-body ranging performance of a low profile UWB antenna is presented. Antenna ranging performance is reported for 10 volunteer wearers and for two different placements. Antenna was especially designed for WBAN applications and is immune to body influence even when in direct skin contact. Average ranging error value below 5 cm is observed for the majority of angles in the front antenna plane with standard deviation of the same order. The study shows that the antenna ranging precision depends more on the body placement than on the distance from the body.