Wide Slot Antennas for UWB On-Body Communications

Abstract

In this paper, two modified ultra-wideband (UWB) wide slot antennas (WSAs) designed for antenna diversity in on-body communications are proposed. One antenna is a dual-polarization WSA (DPWSA) for polarization diversity. The other is a reduced-size WSA (RWSA), which is designed to be narrow in width and can be mounted on the side of a wireless device. Pattern diversity can be achieved by using two or more side-mounted RWSAs oriented in different directions. Both DPWSA and RWSA have broad impedance bandwidths and do not substantially increase the size of the original antenna or wireless device. The proposed diversity antennas can be used to mitigate the fading effects in on-body communications.