Wearable antennas for medical monitoring systems

A wearable silver nano particle inkjet printed antenna suitable for wireless biomedical sensing is presented. The performance is evaluated on a synthetic variable layered phantom test-bed, representative of human tissue for operation in the 868/915 MHz, and 2400 MHz industrial, scientific and medical frequency bands. Antenna radiation efficiency measurements on the phantom were compared with antennas prototyped with copper. Total radiation efficiencies up to -6.5 dB are reported, with less than 0.5 dB difference in performance between copper and silver nano particle variants, showing promising application for low-cost disposable wireless sensing.

[1]  W. Scanlon,et al.  Antennas for Over-Body-Surface Communication at 2.45 GHz , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[2]  Gareth A. Conway,et al.  Layered RF phantom characterization for wireless medical vital sign monitors , 2013, 2013 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium (APSURSI).

[3]  P.S. Hall,et al.  Antennas and propagation for body centric wireless communications , 2012, IEEE/ACES International Conference on Wireless Communications and Applied Computational Electromagnetics, 2005..

[4]  W.G. Scanlon,et al.  The performance of on-body wearable antennas in a repeatable multipath environment , 2008, 2008 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.