Low-Profile off-Body Wearable Antenna for Biomedical Applications

In this work, a wearable off-body antenna with very-low profile dimensions of $0.21\lambda_{0} \times 0.27\lambda_{0} \times 0.007\lambda_{0}$, operating at 5.8 GHz, is proposed. This antenna is capable of working in both free space and on body. Thus, it has been characterized and fabricated for both scenarios. The gain, on-body efficiency, and bandwidth of the antenna are 4.4 $\mathbf{dBi}$, 13.2%, and 42%, respectively, showing a better performance than its counterparts. Being low-profile, small, robust, easy-to-fabricate, efficient, fairly wideband, and low-cost, this antenna can be used in biomedical sensing applications. Also, owing to its unidirectional radiation pattern, this antenna can be used in off-body WBAN communication systems.