A Novel Folded UWB Antenna for Wireless Body Area Network

Abstract

A novel folded ultrawideband antenna for Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is proposed, which can effectively reduce the backward radiation and proximity effects of human bodies. The proposed antenna has a low-profile 3D structure that consists of a bevel-edge feed structure and a metal plate with folded strip. The bevel edge feed structure achieves broadband impedance matching and the metal plate acts as the main radiator. Moreover, the folded strip not only extends the lower frequency band but also provides additional resonant frequency around 6 GHz. The final bandwidth covers from 3.1 GHz to 12 GHz. The proposed antenna shows the directional patterns with low backward radiation due to the patch-like structure and the ground plane also prevents from the proximity effects of human bodies. Furthermore, the simulated SAR values of the proposed antenna are lower than the values of omnidirectional disc planar monopole. These features demonstrate that the proposed antenna is suitable for WBAN application.