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Design of a Compact Dual-band Textile Antenna

Based on Metasurface
Kai Zhang, Ping Jack Soh, and Sen Yan


Abstract—This paper presents a compact textile antenna design
based on a metasurface for wearable applications. It operates in
the 2.45 GHz and 5.5 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical
bands. A two-dimensional equivalent circuit model is proposed to
provide insight into the working principle of the metasurface. The
tuning of the radiator's resonant frequencies can be easily
performed by adjusting the dispersion curve of the metasurface
unit cell. The metasurface in this work consists of a 4×4 array of
unit cells fed by a printed coplanar waveguide structure with a XJTU
slot in its reverse side to maintain its low profile structure. The
main innovations of this work are: (i) the -2nd mode is employed to
significantly miniaturize the antenna dimensions; (ii) the
simultaneous excitation of the +1st mode to enable dual-band
operation; (iii) an integrated back reflector to reduce back
radiation and lower SAR; and (iv) the use of full textile materials
to guarantee user comfort, ease of fabrication and low cost. The
proposed antenna's footprint is 44.1 × 44.1 mm2 (0.12λ2 at 2.45
GHz), with an impedance bandwidth of 10.2 % centered at 2.45
GHz and 22.5 % at 5.5 GHz. The maximum gain is -0.67 dBi and
7.4 dBi in free space, and 9 % of power gain attenuation is
generated when used on the body, and is suitable as a
miniaturized antenna for wearable applications.

Index Terms—Metasurface, textile antennas, compact antennas, Fig. 1. WBAN and its applications.
dual-band antennas, circuit model, wireless body area networks.
crucial in this detection system. Meanwhile, in [5], a
nonintrusive breathing monitoring system using the C-band
I. INTRODUCTION sensing technique was proposed. The microwave sensing
platform developed in this system obtained breathing-induced
F LEXIBLE wireless devices have been increasingly
important to cater to advanced communication systems in
the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G [1]-[3]. As shown in Fig. 1,
chest movements in diabetic patients. Its device for signal
transmission needs an off-body transmits wearable antenna
these devices are becoming an important element in the with broadside radiation and skin-friendly material. Finally, the
Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) in applications such as work in [6] presented a wearable wireless sensing system to
health monitoring, medical care, emergency rescue, location assist patients affected by Parkinson's disease. Integrated
services, wireless communication, virtual reality, control and micro-electro-mechanical inertial sensors are used to recognize
interface to the brain, and etc. For instance, in health incidences of involuntary gait freezing and communicate the
monitoring, a contactless detection system has been proposed data to the signal transmitting unit. Small and comfortable
in [4] to clinically diagnose Parkinson's disease. The use of antennas are vital in such devices worn on the human body. An
compact and conformal antennas operating in the C-band are electrically small antenna with a low profile metasurface cloak
is presented for medical internet-of-things [7]. This
metasurface cloak compensates for the capacitive nature of an
Manuscript is submitted on XXX, 2021. This project is supported by the electrically small dipole to enable resonance. These antennas'
National Natural Science Foundation, China (No. 61901351). P. J. Soh would
like to acknowledge the support by the Academy of Finland 6 Genesis Flagship flexibility, low profile, and miniaturization are the essential
(grant no. 318927). (Corresponding author: S. Yan) features in WBAN systems [4]-[10]. Meanwhile, specific
K. Zhang and S. Yan are with the School of Information and absorption rate (SAR) is also another important parameter in
Communications Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China.
(e-mail: [email protected]). P. J. Soh is with Centre for Wireless determining the safety levels of wearable antennas [11], [12].
Communications, University of Oulu, Oulu, FI-90014, Finland. In recent years, various materials and fabrication techniques
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are have been employed to produce flexible antennas. They include
available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier xxxx
inkjet-printed antennas [13], [14], polyimide film [15] or

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polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based antennas [16], [17], and using dual-layered substrates, which potentially causes
silicone-based antennas [18]. Their selection can be made manufacturing errors during fabrication. To some extent, the
depending on their properties to suit the requirements of height of the antenna still needs to be decreased.
different application. Flexible materials for antennas used in In this paper, a fully textile and compact dual-band antenna
clothes are also made using textiles. Felt, leather, denim, silk, based on metasurface is proposed for WBAN application. The
etc., are popular due to their comfort and skin-friendliness [19]. metasurface functions as the main radiator, which operate using
In recent years, novel design methods, materials, fabrication a pair of modes (+1 and -2 modes) based on the CLRH TL
technologies, and applications are being developed, spurring theory, resulting in dual band operation. In contrast to the
the emergence of flexible antennas. One of the key areas being existing use of mode pair solutions in dual-band antennas from
investigated is the application of metamaterials on wearable [18]-[20], the -2 operating mode introduced on the metasurface
antennas [20]-[45]. This resulted in novel antennas designed in this work resulted in a significant antenna size reduction to
with special radiation characteristics. Examples of 0.36 ×0.36 ×0.04 λ3 (at 2.45 GHz). This metasurface radiator is
metamaterials applied in wearable antenna designs include the fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW)-based coupling feed to
composite right/left-handed transmission lines (CRLH TLs) enable a low-profile and simple structure for ease of fabrication.
and metasurface. The former can be implemented as zero-order While such coupled feed type reduces back radiation [43],
resonant (ZOR) antennas [20], [21] and metamaterial-inspired exciting an additional resonance for dual band operation will
dual-band antennas [22], [23]. It includes ε-negative (ENG), then again result in additional backward radiation [44]. To
μ-negative (MNG), and dual-negative (DNG) [24]-[26], in [25], alleviate this, the CPW feed section is innovatively modified in
[26], an elliptical patch antenna with MNG metamaterial is this work with a slot to not only enable dual band operation and
proposed. These structures provide wide flexibility in the suppress back radiation, but also to reduce the radiator’s
design and manipulation of its radiation property. On the other thickness. Finally, a flexible reflector plane is integrated on the
hand, metasurfaces can be either be artificial magnetic reverse side of the antenna.
conductor (AMC) [27]-[30], electromagnetic band-Gap (EBG) The proposed antenna is made fully using flexible textile
[31], [32], high-impedance surface (HIS) [33] and etc. Despite materials using two felt substrate layers and conductive fabric
being more easily designed and fabricated, CRLH TL-based as the conductive elements. This provides a conformal planar
antennas are intrinsically narrowband, which then limits their structure which is easily integrated onto clothings for medical
applicability. In contrast, metasurface-based antennas offer applications. Most importantly, the feed, radiator and reflector
relatively wider bandwidths and are more suited for wearable structure are all optimized jointly to significantly reduce SAR
applications. level, ensuring a safe long-term operation of the antenna on the
One of the metamaterial-based structures, AMC planes have human body. To further simplify the understanding of the
been widely used as a reflector in planar antennas, resulting in operating mechanism, an equivalent circuit model of the
reasonably low profile wearable antennas [27]-[36]. In [34], metasurface is modeled and analyzed. Finally, the prototyped
[35], dual-band coplanar patch antennas integrated with AMC and measured antenna is validated to operate in the lower band
planes were reported, whereas meta-wearable antennas with from 2.25 GHz to 2.5 GHz and in the upper band from 5.21
and without the metasurface plane were studied in [36] and [37], GHz to 6.45 GHz.
respectively. Meanwhile, the performance of antennas under The structure of this paper is as follows. In the next section,
deformations such as crumpling was also studied. The different the antenna design is presented, with an emphasis on the
aspects investigated in literature showed the AMC plane's metasurface design principles and processes. Next, the
effectiveness in improving wearable antennas' gain, directivity, fabricated prototype is measured, its results presented and
efficiency, front-to-back ratio, compactness, and SAR [38], discussed in Section III. Section IV evaluates the antenna's
[39]. However, a drawback of this method the larger sizes of performance on the human body to verify its applicability for
AMC structures, which may limit their application in WBAN application. Finally, concluding remarks from this
space-constrained wearable systems. work are presented in Section V.
To alleviate this, an alternative to metasurface-based antennas
has been recently proposed by treating the metamaterial II. ANTENNA DESIGN AND PRINCIPLES
structure itself as the main radiator [40]-[45]. For instance, a
A. Metasurface design
compact, fully textile antenna loaded with a
metamaterial-inspired structure was presented in [23]. It The metasurface plane is an important component of the
operates using the -1 and +1 modes of a CRLH-TL to enable proposed antenna. In contrast to a transmission line which can
dual-band operation. Furthermore, such metasurface antenna generate resonance, the metasurface plane not only can
can be developed from a one-dimensional CRLH-TL, which generate positive resonances but also negative resonances due
reduces its size relative to conventional designs. The operating to its intrinsic properties. These resonances can be identified
frequency of this miniaturized antenna can be tuned by via dispersion relation, which are then used to calculate
controlling its dispersion curves, which was also validated in resonant frequency in different modes. To design these planes,
[43]-[45]. It is worth noting that these antennas are typically the dispersion property of its unit cell needs to be first
designed on rigid materials, which is not suitable for integration calculated, based on the validated procedures in [40]-[45]. In
with clothings. Moreover, such topology can only be formed this work, the unit cell is first designed and centered on a

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Px
Port 1
PEC Pz Z 180
Simulated by CST
Port 2 Calculated by Equivalent Circuit
135
X
n=-2
Y 90

p (°)
X
Z PMC
n=-1 n=1
45
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. (a) Modeled unit cell for dispersion simulations, and (b) metasurface
plane. 0
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0

transmission line, and its boundary condition is setup as in Fig. Frequency (GHz)
2(a). The unit cell is then excited by the two ports to generate Fig. 3. Dispersion curves simulated in CST and calculated using the proposed
equivalent circuit when Px=0°.
the quasi TEM mode. This indicates that the phase delay in the
x-direction is 0°. The dispersion of the unit cell in the
z-direction can then be calculated based on the S parameters, as
follows [46],
1  S11 S22  S12 S 21
Px  z    x ( z )  px( z )  cos 1 ( ) (1) Y
2 S 21 X Z
in (1), Px(z) is the phase delay of the unit cell in the x(z)-direction,
px(z) is the length of the unit cell in different directions (as CR LL

shown in Fig. 2(b)), and βx(z) is the propagation constant. The

GND
metasurface plane consists of a 4 ×4 metasurface unit cell array.
(a)
Based on the resonant condition [43],
Px  z   N x ( z )  n(m) , n(m)  0,  1,  2,  (2) iz  diz
ix  dix v y  dv y
where Nx(z) = 4 is the number of the unit cell in a metasurface
plane. From [43], it is observed that the footprint of the v y  dv y
metasurface antenna operating using -1 mode lacks ix
compactness due to the low permittivity of the felt substrate.
vy
Thus, -2 mode is chosen instead in this work, which further vy
iz Y
Y
miniaturizes the proposed antenna while maintaining its X Z
GND
flexibility. To enable dual-band operation in this work, the
following two resonant modes are chosen: -2 mode at 2.5 GHz (b)
and +1 mode at 5.5 GHz. Dimensions of the metasurface unit Fig. 4. (a) Unit cell of the metasurface, and (b) its equivalent circuit model.
cell are then optimized to obtain the resonant frequencies,
resulting in the final dispersion curve shown in Fig. 3 (solid both methods are related and can be understood by engineers
black line). depending on their preference. The gaps between two-unit cells
B. Working mechanism and equivalent circuit model are modeled as series capacitances CL1 and CL2. Each unit cell is
connected to the substrate by using a flexible metal wire, which
The aforementioned metasurface design method is analyzed is then modeled as a parallel inductance LL. Meanwhile, a
from the simulation model’s perspective. For a more parallel capacitance, CR is generated between the radiator and
comprehensive insight into its working mechanism, a the ground. The series inductances LR1 and LR2 originates from
two-dimensional equivalent circuit model is proposed for the the radiator itself, and the U-shaped slot increases their level
metasurface plane, as illustrated in Fig. 4(a) [47], [48]. This
further. Nonetheless, this complex circuit model can be further
circuit model is also more sophisticated, as it considers circuit simplified as shown in Fig. 4(b). Combining these two circuit
parameters in the orthogonal directions. Several other works models, (3)-(5) then can be deduced as [47],
have also studied the impedance of metasurfaces and built
1
explicit expressions from the electromagnetic field theory Z x ( )   j LR1 (3)
[49]-[51]. Analysis of the spatial distributions of vector fields 2 jCL1
and electromagnetic energy presented in these works can be 1
used to better estimate the metasurface performance assuming Z z ( )   j LR 2 (4)
2 j CL 2
infinite electromagnetic properties in three-dimensional space.
On the other hand, in this paper, the circuit theory is used to 1
Y ( )   j CR (5)
obtain the surface impedance of the metasurface, which relates j LL
the electromagnetic law in two-dimensional space. Nonetheless,

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SMA connector Metal wire

Ht
Y Hb

X Z (a)

Felt textile Flexible conductive material

w1
w2
w3 w4
Lx

wv g1

g2 Fig. 6. Prototype of the flexible antenna. (a) top view, (b) feeding structure, (c)
back view, and (d) its flexibility.

Ly
The equivalent length of the circuit model of a unit cell in
this paper is the physical length of the unit cell, px(z), with the
(b)
phase delay in the x-direction set as 0°. Thus from (4), (5) and
wh (10), the dispersion is expressed as:
sg 1 2 LR 2 CR
 ( ) pz  2 2 LR 2 CR  (  ) (11)
sw
 2 LL CL 2 LL CL 2
sy ax
Using equations (2) and (11), and according to Taylor
sx expansion of the cosine function, the circuit parameters can
then be expressed as follows,
n(m) 1 1
ay  cos 1 (1  (2 2 LR 2 CR  2
(c) N x(z ) 2  LL CL 2
Fig. 5. The geometry of the proposed flexible antenna, (a) dimensions of (12)
antenna, (b) the top view and the back view, (c) dimensions of metasurface unit 2L C
cell.  ( R 2  R ))
LL CL 2
TABLE I
DIMENSIONS OF THE ANTENNA 1 OF FIG. 5 From (12), the fitted circuit parameters are obtained, as
Parameter Value (mm) Parameter Value (mm) follows: CL2 =0.65 pF, CR=1.5 pF, LL=1.1 nH, and LR2=1.0 nH.
Ht 3.0 g2 38.3 Meanwhile, the corresponding dispersion curve is plotted in Fig.
Hb 2.0 ax 8.0 3 and compared to CST simulation results. It also shows that
Lx 44.1 ay 8.0
Ly 44.1 wh 2.0
the proposed unit cell introduces a 90° phase delay at about
w1 2.0 wv 1.8 2.45 GHz in the left-hand band, and a 45° phase delay at about
w2 1.3 sg 1.0 5.5 GHz in the right-hand band. They represent the -2 and +1
w3 4.8 sw 1.0
w4 1.3 sx 4.0
resonant modes, respectively.
g1 9.1 sy 4.0 C. Antenna design guideline
Based on the aforementioned principles, an antenna with an
From the equivalent model in Fig. 4(b), the following overall dimension of 44.1 ×44.1 × 5 mm3 (0.36 × 0.36 × 0.04 λ3
relations are obtained, at 2.45 GHz) is designed, as shown in Fig. 5(a). It consists of a
v y x  ix  2 Z x (6) CPW feeding structure and a metasurface plane located on the
v y z  iz  2 Z z (7) two sides of the same textile substrate, as illustrated in Fig. 5(b).
The slot feeding structure is chosen to excite an anti-phase
ix x  iz z  v yY (8)
mode of the antenna [42]. Different from other designs in
Based on (6) to (8), equations (9) and (10) are then obtained literature [52], [53], the CPW feeding structure is integrated
when only one direction of phase delay is considered. into the ground of the antenna in this design, which avoided the
2
 2 v y x   x2 v y  0 ,  x  2 Z xY (Pz=0) (9) need for a separate strip feeding structure and decreased the
2 profile. This then also simplifies the fabrication process using
 2 v y z   z2 v y  0 ,  z  2 Z z Y (Px=0) (10) textiles. As an alternative, the stepped feeding slot is used to

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0
-5
-10

S11 (dB)
-15 n=-1

-20
Case 1
-25 Case 2 n=1
(a) (b)
n=-2 Case 3
-30
Proposed
-35 CPW
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5
Frequency (GHz)
Fig. 8. S11 of the flexible antenna.

To ensure fabrication robustness, it is noted that the

(c) (d) optimized dimensions from simulations will need to be traded
off with realistic fabrication accuracy using manual tools. The
75.3
50 two main dimensions which needed to be compromised include
10
the diameter of the shorting vias and 0.3-mm gap between the
5 CPW line and ground plane. To find the best dimension for
1 them, parametric studies are conducted, with a 0.5 mm lowest
0.5
accuracy. It is found that the antenna is still able to operate
0.1
0.05 throughout the target frequency bands while maintaining
0 performance robustness, even when slight changes may occur
(e) (f) on these parameters during the fabrication process.
Fig. 7. Evolution of the flexible antenna. (a) case 1, (b) case 2, (c) case 3, (d) the In the design process, the antenna is optimized in four main
proposed antenna, (e) CPW antenna (f) the current distribution of the CPW steps (denoted as "cases") shown in Fig. 7(a)-(d), with their
antenna at 4.2 GHz.
reflection coefficient (S11) curves shown in Fig. 8. The structure
improve impedance matching. The feeding and radiating in Case 1 is designed from a typical metasurface antenna.
Despite having a compact size, this antenna requires an
structures are made using ShieldIt Super® conductive textiles,
with a conductivity of 1.18×105 S/m and 0.017 mm of thickness. additional substrate layer for the feeding structure, besides
being limited in bandwidth in the higher frequency band.
The substrate chosen is felt, with 3 mm thickness, and relative
permittivity (εr) and loss tangent (tanδ) of 1.3 and 0.044, Integrating a CPW structure resulted in the structure shown in
respectively. All the parameters of the proposed antenna are Case 2, which featured a wider bandwidth in the higher
frequency band. Next, a stepped slot is used in place of a
listed in Table I.
Next, the fabricated prototype of the flexible antenna is regular slot to facilitate impedance matching in Case 3. This
shown in Fig. 6. Two layers of felt with different thicknesses (3 resulted in improved S11, but then produced additional back
radiation, which potentially increases SAR. To alleviate this, a
mm and 2 mm) are used in this design. The 4 ×4 metasurface
unit cell array made of conductive textiles is secured onto the reflector is then designed and located on the back of the antenna.
The final proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 7(d).
top face of the 3 mm thick felt substrate with glue, whereas the
CPW feeding structure is placed in between the two substrates. To study the influence of the CPW structure on the
On the other hand, copper wires with 0.8 mm diameter are metasurface plane, the current distribution of the CPW line and
inserted through the textiles to connect the metasurface unit its S11 are presented in Fig. 8. It is observed that the current
cells and the ground of the CPW feeding structure. To ensure shows a slot radiation mode, which slot length is about half of a
wavelength at 4.2 GHz. It validates that the +1 mode of
consistent galvanic connection, both ends of the copper wires
are soldered onto the conductive textile. Finally, the bottom metasurface antenna is not excited by the CPW structure.
side of the last layer is fully covered using the conductive Moreover, the input impedance of the CPW structure is not 50
Ω, and it is matched using the stepped structure of the slot.
textile. An SMA connector is soldered directly at the end of
feed line, as shown in Fig. 6(b). The welding temperature There are two main reasons for not directly designing a 50 Ω
CPW structure: i) to maintain structural simplicity, and ii) to
should not exceed 260 ℃ to avoid disintegration of the
maintain design simplicity. For the former, either the width of
conductive fabric. Prior to its full evaluation, the antenna
the feed line is too long or the gap between the feed line and
performance is also repeatedly measured to ensure that it is
ground is too small to enable a 50 Ω CPW impedance. These
stable.
configurations will further complicate the antenna fabrication

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V/m
1000
As a summary, the antenna design can be performed as
Z
800
600
follows.
Z Z
400 1) Metasurface design
200
X X X 0 An appropriate metasurface unit is designed to includea
-200
-400
parallel resonant tank and a series resonant tank to generate
-600
-800
left-hand characteristic. Then, a transmission dispersion
-1000 simulation is modeled as shown in Fig. 2(a) and applying the
Y dispersion calculation formula (1) in the post-processing
Z module in CST. The structure of the metasurface unit is then
(a) (b) (c) optimized to adjust the corresponding modes in the dispersion
curve to the designed frequencies.
Fig. 9. The amplitude of E-field along the y-direction (a) -2 mode at 2.45 GHz,
(b) -1 mode at 3.3 GHz and (c) +1 mode at 5.5 GHz. 2) Feeding structure design
Coupled feeding techniques are widely used in metasurface
plane excitation [40]-[44]. To excite the -2 mode, the gap
0 coupling feeding technique with CPW structure is employed,
decreasing the antenna's thickness relative to conventional
-5
coupled feeding techniques.
-10 3) Optimizing front-to-back ratio
-15 Due to the compact size of the proposed antenna, a
S11 (dB)

-20
monopole-like radiation mode is excited. This is unsuitable for
Sim. without bending
WBAN applications. Thus, a reflection plane is designed and
-25 integrated onto the rear of the antenna to effectively decrease
Mea. without bending
-30 Sim. with R=80 mm this back radiation. Finally, the parameters of the feeding
-35
R
Mea. with bending structure is then fine-tuned for optimized performance.
Sim. with R=60 mm
-40
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 III. ANTENNA MEASUREMENTS AND PERFORMANCE
Frequency (GHz) One of the most important properties of textile antennas is
being flexible and conformal. For this, the antenna's simulated
Fig. 10. S11 curves of the flexible antenna with different states. and measured S11 are investigated with bending curvatures of
R=60 mm, and R=80 mm, and compared against its planar form
10
Sim. Gain
0.6
(without bending, R=∞), as shown in Fig. 10. An Agilent
Mea. Gain
5
Efficiency
AV3672E-S vector network analyzer (VNA) is used for
0.4
measurements. In planar form, the simulated bandwidth is from
Gain (dBi)

Efficiency

0
2.25 GHz to 2.5 GHz (250 MHz, 10.2%) in the lower band and
-5 0.2
from 5.21 GHz to 6.45 GHz (1240 MHz, 22.5%) in the upper
-10 band. On the other hand, measurements indicated a bandwidth
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5
0.0
6.0 from 2.35 GHz to 2.55 GHz (200 MHz, 8.2%) in the lower band
Frequency (GHz) and from 5.22 GHz to 6.3 GHz (1080 MHz, 19.6%) in the upper
(a) (b)
Fig. 11. (a) Antenna measurement setup in an anechoic chamber, (b) gain and frequency band. It is seen that the simulated S11 with R =∞ and
efficiency over the working band. R = 80 mm are similar, in agreement with measurements. In the
lower band, bending with R = 60 mm is slightly shifted the
process. For the latter, the feeding structure and metasurface operating band upwards due to the distortion of the antenna
plane are optimized as a single system to simplify the design structure. However, the antenna’s operation remains unaffected,
procedure. The feeding structure is designed with a 50 Ω input as it still covers the intended WBAN band. In general, all
impedance to match the SMA connector's impedance, and the measurements indicated a slight shift of operation downwards,
rest of the CPW structure acts as an impedance transformer which is due to the inhomogeneous thickness and permittivity
between the connector and metasurface plan. of the textile substrate. Moreover, these observations are also
In addition to the S11, the distribution of the electric field's caused by minor fabrication errors caused by the manual
y-component (vertical component) is shown in Fig. 9. When procedure and tools. Despite that, it can be seen that generally,
excited by a slot feeding structure, the E-field distribution at measurement results agreed reasonably with simulations.
2.45 GHz is an anti-phase TM(-20) mode, and another at 5.5 Next, the antenna's far-field performance is measured in an
GHz is a TM(10) mode. Besides that, the TM(-10) mode at 3.3 anechoic chamber, as shown in Fig. 11(a), with its gain and
GHz is also presented in Fig. 9 (b). The E-field distribution efficiency shown in Fig. 11(b). From simulations, the gain in
shows that the +1 mode and -1 modes are anti-phase, with the the lower band is c.a. -0.67 dBi, and in the upper band is c.a. 7.4
-2 mode is also anti-phase due to the slot feeding, which can dBi. The measured gains are -0.09 dBi and 6.5 dBi, respectively.
excite broadside radiation. The E-field vector in the yz plane The simulated efficiency is 34% at 2.45 GHz and 42% at 5.5
presented in Fig. 9 agreed with the dispersion curve modes.

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Sim. Eθ Sim. Eθ
0 0
10 330 30
Sim. Eφ 10 Sim. Eφ
330 30
Mea. Eθ Mea. Eθ
0 Mea. Eφ 0 Mea. Eφ
300 60 300 60
Realized Gain (dBi)

Realized Gain (dBi)

-10 -10

-20 -20
270 90 270 90
-20 -20

-10 -10
240 120 240 120
0 0
210 150 210 150
10 10
180 180

(a) (b) (a) (b)

Sim. Eθ Sim. Eθ
0 0
10 Sim. Eφ 10 330 30
Sim. Eφ
330 30
Mea. Eθ Mea. Eθ
0 Mea. Eφ 0 Mea. Eφ
300 60 300 60
Realized Gain (dBi)
Realized Gain (dBi)

-10 -10

-20 -20
270 90 270 90
-20 -20

-10 -10
240 120 240 120
0 0
210 150 210 150
10 10
180 180

(c) (d)
Fig. 12. Far-field patterns of the antenna. (a) yz plane at 2.45 GHz, (b) yz plane
at 5.5 GHz, (c) xy plane at 2.45 GHz, (d) xy plane at 5.5 GHz. The simulated Eφ
(c) (d)
in (a), (b) and (c) are less than -30 dB. Fig. 13. (a) Simulation model without bending, (b) simulation model with
bending of R=80 mm. (c) measurement on the body without bending, and (d)
GHz. The relatively lower efficiency is mainly due to the loss measurement on the body with bending.
of the substrate layers. Loss of the substrate textile,
conductivity of the conductive textile, and antenna dimensions 0
are the main factors limiting efficiency. In this work, replacing -5
the existing substrate with a less lossy one and a more -10
conductive textile can improve the radiation efficiency -15
S11 (dB)

dramatically. Besides the use of better materials, generation of -20

Sim. on the body without bending
a uniform current throughout the antenna structure by adjusting -25
Mea. on the body without bending
the overall antenna can also be considered to enhance its -30
Sim. on the body with R=80 mm
-35 Mea. on the body with bending
efficiency in future works [54]. Sim. on the body with R=60 mm
-40
The measured far-field patterns are shown in Fig. 12. The Sim. (contact with skin)
-45
lower front-to-back ratio of the antenna, especially in the lower 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5
band, is due to the miniaturized antenna beside the leaky Frequency (GHz)
feeding slot. However, this is improved when the antenna is Fig. 14. Simulated and measured the S11 when the antenna is bent on the human
body.
placed onto a larger conductive ground. Detailed results are
listed in Table II. [55]. The S11 of the antenna when placed on the body with
different curvatures is studied, and its results are presented in
IV. ANTENNA PERFORMANCE ON HUMAN BODY Fig. 14. The prototype sample is placed on the arm with and
In this section, the performance of the textile antenna on the without bending during measurements to mimic the simulations,
human body is evaluated, and its flexibility is studied. as seen in Fig. 13(c) and (d). Results presented in Fig. 14
generally conclude that the antenna's performance is similar
A. Antenna performance with different curvatures
when operated on body and bent. Simulations indicated an
As shown in Fig. 14, the textile antenna located on a cubic operation from 2.25 GHz to 2.51 GHz, with 260 MHz (9.4%) of
human body is simulated and measured. The human tissue bandwidth in the lower band, and from 5.24 GHz to 6.49 GHz
model consists of four layers: a 2 mm-thick skin layer, a 5 with 1250 MHz (22.7%) of bandwidth in the upper band.
mm-thick fat layer, a 20 mm-thick muscle layer, and a 13 Experimental evaluations validated that the antenna operated
mm-thick bone layer with an area of 150×150 mm2 [33]. All from 2.35 GHz to 2.55 GHz (200MHz, 8.2%) and 5.22 GHz to
tissue parameters are obtained from the CST material library. 6.3 GHz (1080 MHz, 19.6%), in the lower and upper band,
Compared with the whole body model, this tissue model allows respectively. Meanwhile, on body measurements performed
shorter simulation time, and is sized at a distance of at least a indicated similar S11 as in free space. This indicates that the
quarter wavelength between the side of the antenna to ensure reflector minimized the coupling to the human body. In
validity of results. The gap between the antenna and the human addition to that, an additional simulation to evaluate the
tissues is 10 mm. Moreover, the integrated back reflector antenna performance when placed directly on the human body
minimizes coupling and reflection of energy from the radiator is performed. It is evident that the changes in S11 when operated
to the body. The voxel model in our simulation has enough at this distance remained almost unchanged. The operation of
accuracy for SAR calculation of general wearable antennas the antenna on the body in bent configuration is observed to

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W/kg W/kg
15 0.5 0.5
Without bending Without bending 0.45 0.45
0.4 R=80 mm 10 R=80 mm 0.4 0.4
R=60 mm 0.35
R=60 mm 5 0.35
Contact with skin 0.3
Efficiency

Contact with skin 0.3

0.25

Gain
0 0.25
0.2
0.15 0.2
0.2 0.15
-5 0.1
0.05 0.1
-10 0 0.05
0
0.0 -15
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz) (a) (b)
Fig. 15. Simulated gain and efficiency evaluated on the human body.
Fig. 17. Simulated SAR of the antenna on the human body with a 10 mm gap at
0 0
(a) 2.45 GHz and (b) 5.5 GHz.
10 330 30 10 330 30

0
300 60
0
300 60 tissue on the far-field performance. Part of the radiation is
Realized Gain (dBi)

Realized Gain (dBi)

-10 -10
absorbed by the body, leading to lower efficiency. Meanwhile,
-20 -20

-20
270 90
-20
270 90 the antenna is further simulated with 0mm distance between the
-10 -10
antenna and skin. The efficiency and gain are decreased in the
0
240 120
Sim. Eθ without bending 0
240 120
Sim. Eθ without bending lower band. However, its performance in the upper band is
10 210 Sim. Eθ R=80
Sim.
150 mm
180 Eθ R=60 mm
10 210 Sim. Eθ R=80
Sim.
150 mm
180 Eθ R=60 mm
improved compared to the its operation with a 10 mm gap. This
(a) (b) is due to the tissue surface which now also reflects the radiated
10
0
10
0 energy from the antenna. Moreover, the higher front-to-back
330 30 330 30

0 Eθ 0
Eθ ratio in this band also validates this observation. The radiation
300 60 300 60
patterns of the textile antenna on the human body are illustrated
Realized Gain (dBi)

Realized Gain (dBi)

-10 -10

-20 -20
Eφ
in Fig. 16. The simulation results indicated that the antenna
270 90 270 90
-20 Eφ -20 featured a good robustness in performance despite being
-10
240 120
-10
240 120
simulated under different curvatures.
0 Sim. Eθ/Eφ without bending 0 Sim. Eθ/Eφ without bending
10 210 Sim. Eθ/Eφ R=80
150 mm
10 210 Sim. Eθ/Eφ R=80
150 mm C. SAR evaluation
Sim.
180Eθ/Eφ R=60 mm Sim. Eθ/Eφ
180 R=60 mm
(c) (d) When attached to or used near human tissues, a major
Fig. 16. The simulated far-field realized gain pattern on the human body in (a)
yoz plane at 2.45 GHz, (b) yoz plane at 5.5 GHz, (c) xoy plane at 2.45 GHz, (d)
concern of WBAN antennas is the absorption of their radiation
xoy plane at 5.5 GHz. The simulated Eφ in (a), (b) and (c) are less than -30 dB. in the human body. This is characterized by the Specific
TABLE II
Absorption Rate (SAR), which indicates the tissues’ exposure
MAIN PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS OF ANTENNAS to RF energy from wireless devices. This is regulated at a limit
Freq. BW Gain SAR of 2 W/kg, as averaged over ten grams of tissue (IEEE
Condition Effi.
(GHz) (MHz) (dBi) (W/kg) C95.1-2005). To assess this, the antenna is simulated when
Sim. in space 250 0.34 -0.67 - placed over the human tissue in planar condition. Results in Fig.
Mea. in space 200 - -0.09 -
2.45 17 indicate a peak SAR of 0.476 W/kg at 2.45 GHz and 0.024
Sim. on body 260 0.182 -1.11 0.476
Mea. on body 200 - - - W/kg at 5.5 GHz when fed by an input power of 0.2 W. The
Sim. in space 1240 0.42 7.4 - intended application of the antenna (and the fully covered
Mea. in space 1080 - 6.5 -
5.5
Sim. on body 1250 0.40 7.0 0.024 reverse side) is not to be integrated directly onto the skin of the
Mea. on body 1080 - - - human user, but rather to be integrated in the coats, which have
at least 5 to 10 mm distance from the body using a
non-conductive spacer or the clothing itself. In this way,
deviate more in the upper band. This is because of the dielectric
wearable devices can be protected from being affected by the
loading of the human tissue onto the antenna, which also acts as
human tissue in their proximity, while avoiding performance
an equivalent substrate and changes the overall effective
variations during operation. So there are no biocompatibility
dielectric constant. Meanwhile, the equivalent wavelength of
issues in the proposed applications. On the other hand, this
the upper band is smaller than the lower band, and the bending
conductive plane also reduces the human body from radiation
human tissue has a greater relative curvature. Thus, the higher
exposure. Even the antenna is located very close to the skin, the
band experienced more deviation compared to the lower band.
SAR values are 0.556 W/kg and 0.051 W/kg, which are well
Nonetheless, the deviations observed are acceptable,
below the exposure limits.
maintaining operating within the target frequency bands.
Finally, the performance of the proposed antenna and other
B. Far-field performance on body state-of-the-art metamaterial-based wearable antennas from the
Next, the realized gain and efficiency for this antenna are literature are compared in Table III. It can be observed that the
evaluated, and their results are shown in Fig. 15. Simulations proposed antenna provided an improved bandwidth and gain
results at 2.45 and 5.5 GHz are -1.11 dBi and 7.0 dBi (in the compared to most of the dual-band antennas of the same design
lower and upper band, respectively), whereas the efficiency is concept. Besides that, this antenna also allowed a miniaturized
18.2% and 40.5%. This indicates the significance of the human footprint relative to most of the WBAN antennas in literature.
Despite its size and the more lossy substrate used which

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TABLE III
PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA WITH METAMATERIAL-BASED WBAN ANTENNAS IN LITERATURE
Efficiency SAR Substrate (  r )
Ref. Freq.(GHz) BW(%) Gain(dB) Footprint (λ3)
(free space/ on body) (W/kg)
2.45 5.5 -3.5 0.17(ob) 0.37 0.40× 0.40 × 0.049
[23] Textile (1.3)
5.2 10.6 6.6 0.75(ob) 0.69 (@2.45GHz)
1.8 10.9 0.90 × 0.90 × 0.012
[27] 1~2 - 0.048 Jean. Fabric (1.7)
2.45 5.1 (@1.8GHz)
[34] 2.4 4 6.4 - 0.58 0.71× 0.66 × 0.024 Substrate (3)
2.45 4 6.4 0.98× 0.98 × 0.027
[36] - 0.08 Textile (1.38)
5.8 12 7.6 (@2.45GHz)
1.575 7.6 1.98 0.73(ob) 0.78 0.45× 0.45 × 0.029
[38] Kevlar (1.66)
2.45 5.5 1.94 0.86(ob) 0.71 (@1.575GHz)
2.45 12 2.5 0.4(fs) 0.019 0.82× 0.82 × 0.024
[39] Textile (1.3)
5.5 16.3 0~4 0.4(fs) 0.009 (@2.45GHz)
0.45× 0.43 × 0.036
[43] 2.45 15.7 4.25 0.97(fs), 0.53(ob) 0.65 Substrate (2.65)
(@2.45GHz)
2.45 10.2 -0.69 0.34(fs), 0.18(ob) 0.476 0.36 × 0.36 × 0.04
This work Felt (1.3)
5.5 22.5 7.4 0.42(fs), 0.40(ob) 0.024 (@2.45GHz)

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China, in 2015, and master’s degrees from
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Substrate," Electr. Lett., vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 141-142, 1 Feb. 2007. Xidian University, Xi’an, in 2018. He is
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EBG Substrate," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 57, no. 4, pp. electronics science and technology, Xi’an
926-935, April 2009. Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China. His
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vol. 45, no. 13, pp. 662 -663, 18 June 2009. current research interests include
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Complementary Split Ring Resonators," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., He is currently an Associate
vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 794-803, Feb. 2019. Professor in the Centre for Wireless
[41] W. E. I. Liu, Z. N. Chen and X. Qing, "Broadband Low-Profile L-Probe
Fed Metasurface Antenna With TM Leaky Wave and TE Surface Wave Communications (CWC), University of
Resonances," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 68, no. 3, pp. Oulu, Finland. He started his career as a
1348-1355, March 2020. Test Engineer (2002–2004) and a Research and Development

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Engineer (2005–2006). He then joined Universiti Malaysia

Perlis (UniMAP), as a Lecturer, (2006–2009), before moving to
KU Leuven, as a Research Assistant (2009–2013), a
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2013–2014), and since 2014, a
Research Affiliate with the ESAT-WAVECORE Research
Division. He went back to UniMAP as a Senior Lecturer
(2014–2017) and an Associate Professor (2017–2021), before
moving to Finland. Within UniMAP, he was formerly the
Deputy Director of the Centre for Industrial Collaboration
(2007–2009), the Deputy Dean of the university's Research
Management and Innovation Center (RMIC) (2014–2017), and
the Head of the Advanced Communication Engineering (ACE)
Research Centre (2020). His research interests include antennas
and related technologies; focused on their applications in
wearables/body area communication; compact satellites;
metasurfaces; 5G/6G communications; EM safety and
absorption; and wireless techniques for healthcare.
Dr. Soh is a member of the IET and URSI. He was a
recipient of the URSI Young Scientist Award in 2015, the IEEE
MTT-S Graduate Fellowship for Medical Applications in 2013,
and the IEEE AP-S Doctoral Research Award in 2012. He was
also the Second Place Winner of the IEEE Presidents' Change
the World Competition in 2013. He is a Chartered Engineer
registered with the U.K. Engineering Council. He also
volunteers in the IEEE MTT-S Education Committee. He is
also an Associate Editor of the International Journal of
Numerical Modelling: Electronic Networks, Devices and
Fields (Wiley).

Sen Yan (M’17) received his bachelor’s

and master’s degrees in information and
communication engineering from Xi’an
Jiaotong University (XJTU), Xi’an, China,
in 2007 and 2010, respectively, and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering
from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU
Leuven), Leuven, Belgium, in 2015. From
2015 to 2017, he was a Post-Doctoral
Researcher with KU Leuven. In 2016, he joined EPFL,
Lausanne, Switzerland, and the University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, TX, USA, as a Visiting Researcher. Since 2017, he has
been a Full Professor with XJTU.
Prof. Yan has authored or co-authored 75 international
journal papers and 76 conference contributions. His current
research interests include metamaterials and metasurfaces,
wearable devices and textile antennas, reconfigurable antennas,
antenna diversity, and biosensors. He was successful in
achieving the Post-Doctoral Fellowship from KU Leuven and
FWO in 2015 and 2016, respectively. In 2017, he received the
‘‘Young Talent Support Plan’’ from XJTU. In 2019, he
received the “Young Scientist Award” of the International
Union of Radio Science (URSI).

1932-4545 (c) 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Oulu University. Downloaded on February 16,2022 at 15:50:32 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.