Wearable EBG-Backed Belt Antenna for Smart On-Body Applications

Pei, Rui ORCID: 0000-0003-0829-8334, Leach, Mark Paul, Lim, Eng Gee ORCID: 0000-0003-0199-7386, Wang, Zhao, Song, Chaoyun, Wang, Jingchen, Zhang, Wenzhang, Jiang, Zhenzhen ORCID: 0000-0003-3306-883X and Huang, Yi ORCID: 0000-0001-7774-1024 (2020) Wearable EBG-Backed Belt Antenna for Smart On-Body Applications. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, 16 (11). pp. 7177-7189.

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Abstract

This article presents an innovative belt antenna with an electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) ground plane made of textile materials. The antenna can be applied in a smart belt system to set up a communication link with other electronic devices and/or host a variety of sensors to track human motions. The proposed belt antenna works at 2.45 GHz in the industrial, scientific, and medical radio band for Bluetooth low energy communications. Considering the effect the human body would have on the performance of a belt antenna, a textile ground plane is designed to be integrated into the trouser fabric behind the belt to provide isolation from the body and simultaneously improve antenna radiation characteristics. Through the application of the ground plane, the belt antenna achieves a maximum realized gain of 7.94 dBi and a minimum specific absorption rate of 0.04 W/kg at 0.5 W input power. During the design process, characteristic mode analysis is used to explore the underlining principle and further optimize the antenna performance. Two typical EBG structures are analyzed in detail for this application scenario. The suspended transmission line method is used to evaluate EBG performance variations when the textile ground plane is bent. A prototype of such a system is fabricated and tested. Experimental results shows that the belt antenna, together with the textile EBG ground plane, is an excellent candidate for a smart belt system with desirable radiation pattern, efficiency, and safety limit.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Antenna radiation patterns, Periodic structures, Metals, Metamaterials, Textiles, Current distribution, Artificial magnetic conductor (AMC), belt antenna, characteristic mode analysis (CMA), electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) materials, metamaterial, specific absorption rate (SAR), wearable antennas
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	03 Sep 2020 08:10
Last Modified:	15 Mar 2024 13:38
DOI:	10.1109/TII.2020.2983064
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3099785