Biomedical Antenna Characterization in-front of Homogeneous and Frequency Dependent Inhomogeneous Human Head

The effect of homogeneous and frequency dependent inhomogeneous human head models are investigated while characterizing an on-head matched antenna for Biomedical applications. The antenna is designed to operate at 0.9 GHz and utilizes a low cost FR4 substrate to obtain the compact proportions of 30 × 30 × 1.6 mm
³
(0.09 λ
₀
maximum dimension). The antenna is characterized in two scenarios: in contact with either a homogeneous or an inhomogeneous human head phantom. The antenna is optimized to operate at the same frequency at the near field of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous human head phantom. The effect of choosing a homogeneous head phantom over a realistic inhomogeneous and frequency dependent human head phantom for antenna characterization is shown in terms of electric field, magnetic field, radiation pattern at the near field and the power penetration at 50 mm inside the phantoms. It is shown that the field and power penetration characteristics of the antenna significantly vary depending on the human head phantom used, which is a crucial finding for antenna dependent medical diagnosis applications.