A low profile antenna for millimetre-wave body-centric applications

Masood Ur-Rehman
,
Nabeel Malik
,
Xiaodong Yang
,
Qammer Hussain Abbasi
,
Zhiya Zhang
,
Nan Zhao

Xidian University
,
University of Glasgow

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

Millimetre-Wave frequencies are a front runner contender for the next generation body-centric wireless communications. In this paper, design of a very low profile antenna is presented for body-centric applications operating in the millimetre-wave frequency band centred at 60 GHz. The antenna has an overall size of 14£10.5£1.15 mm3 and is printed on a flexible printed circuit board. The performance of the antenna is evaluated in off-body, on-body and body-to-body communication scenarios using a realistic numerical phantom and verified through measurements. The antenna has a bandwidth of 9.8 GHz and offers a gain of 10.6 dBi in off-body (free space) configuration while 12.1 dBi in on-body configuration. It also acheives an efficiency of 74% in off-body and 63% in on-body scenario. The small and flexible structure of the antenna along with excellent impedance matching, broad bandwidth, high gain and good efficiency makes it a suitable candidate to attain simultaneous data transmission/reception at millimetre-wave frequencies for the 5G body-centric applications.