Study of Single and Dual Band Wearable Metallic Button Antennas for Personal Area Networks (PANs)

A small WLAN/Bluetooth antenna with the appearance of a metallic button is reported for use with wearable computer systems and covert communications. A single band version is discussed in addition to a dual band design that also covers the HiperLAN/2 band. No external matching circuits are required when the antenna is fed with a 50 Ω coaxial line. A lumped element equivalent circuit is presented for the dual band design together with parametric data curves to inform the design process. A 3 layer human body is included in the simulation and measurements are given to demonstrate the on-body performance. The antenna is disguised as a small metallic button, having the appearance of the waist button used in denim jeans.

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