On-Body Low-Profile Textile Antenna With Artificial Magnetic Conductor

A compact low-profile wearable antenna is proposed. The antenna is a combination of monopole with an artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) as a ground plane. The proposed AMC-integrated antenna is fabricated using layers of textile and operates within the industrial, scientific, and medical 5.8 GHz band. The proposed low-profile AMC antenna features a small footprint, with dimensions of $102\times 68 \times 3.6$ mm3 and yields an impedance bandwidth of 34% (4.30–5.90 GHz), with a gain value of 6.12 dBi. Numerical and experimental investigations reveal that the performance of the proposed integrated AMC antenna is robust with respect to structural deformations, i.e., bending and crumpling, as well as human body loading, and show superior performance when compared to the conventional monopole antenna. Additionally, numerical investigations indicate that the inclusion of the AMC structure considerably reduces the specific absorption rate values for different planer and bending scenarios. For on-body analysis, three different body models of different compositions and shapes were used. Also, experiments were performed utilizing body phantoms. The proposed AMC antenna is a promising candidate for wearable wireless devices.