Electromagnetic bandgap wearable dipole antenna with low specific absorption rate

A novel wearable planar dipole antenna for 2.1GHz is presented in this paper. Felt fabric with permittivity 1.38 and thickness 1.1mm is used as a substrate. The proposed antenna has quasi omnidirectional pattern that results in high backwards radiation indicating high specific absorption rate (SAR). Antenna results have been evaluated in free space as well as in close vicinity to human body. The interaction of antenna with human body degrades antenna performance, to overcome this issue proposed antenna is integrated with electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure resulting in reduction of backward radiations. As a result specific absorption rate (SAR) at resonant frequency reduces by 98%, antenna gain increases to 9-10 dB and return loss by 24-28dB. The software used for the design and simulation of antenna is CST MWS.