A Low Profile UWB Antenna for WBAN Applications

In this paper, we propose a low-profile ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna for wireless body area networks. The proposed antenna is low-weight and easy to produce by printed circuit board manufacturing. Optimized shape of the radiation patch and shorted top-loading patches are introduced to broaden the bandwidth and reduce the profile of the antenna. The height of the antenna is 0.05λ
₀
, where λ
₀
is the free-space wavelength at the lowest operating frequency. The simulated and measured results show that an enhanced impedance bandwidth of about 162% in the range of 2.5 to 24 GHz (S
₁₁
<; -10 dB) is achieved. Besides, the influence of the human body to the proposed antenna is minimal. The time-domain behavior of the low-profile UWB antenna is tested, and the results show a satisfactory performance in transmitting and receiving pulse signals.