A 900 MHz Beam Steering Parasitic Antenna Array for Wearable Wireless Applications

A 900 MHz wearable beam steering antenna array is proposed. A wideband driven dipole when assisted by several varactor diode controlled parasitic dipoles allows the array beam to be steered in the azimuth. Antenna array prototypes fabricated using copper, conductive fabrics and conductive threads show good bandwidth and radiation performance. The array when placed against an anatomically correct human body model shows that the array beam can be steered along 3 distinct angles, 0, 45, and 315 degrees with 5.9 dBi peak gain.

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