A Compact Size Four-Leaf Clover Shaped Antenna for On-Body Communications

Abstract

A compact size four-leaf clover shaped antenna for on-body communication is proposed. The proposed antenna consists of four antenna elements which are based on antipodal Vivaldi antennas (AVA). The combination of the four antenna elements is made for omnidirectional radiation in parallel to the surface of the human body. To achieve a compact combination of four AVA elements, the conducting planes around the tapered slot of AVA elements are bent. The contours of the tapered slot are optimized for wideband impedance matching. An overlap between AVA elements is created to obtain capacitive load and to reduce resonant length. The influence of the proximity of the human body on the proposed antenna is inapparent. The proposed antenna is built on the FR4 substrate with the size of 46 x 46 x 0.6 mm(3) and the bandwidth of 6 to 10.6 GHz, which is suitable for on-body communication applications.