Studies on feed dependent characteristics of patch antenna for wireless body area networks

This work reports the simulation studies related to the effect of human body on feeding technique dependent characteristics of a patch antenna, designed using a substrate of ARLON AD250 and copper as patch material. It is designed to operate at 3.4GHz in the UWB range with a form-factor suitable for wireless body area networks. The performance is evaluated by placing the antenna on and off the tissue model at varied distances in a simulation environment using CST MW studio suite. In order to verify its biocompatibility the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) distribution is analyzed to match IEEE and ICNIRP standards. It is observed that on body SAR value of microstrip feed is 2.571W/kg and that of proximity feed is 2.747W/kg compared to aperture coupling feed which has very high SAR value of 15.59W/kg.