Characterization of Wearable and Implanted Antennas: Test Procedure and Range Design

authored by: Lukas Berkelmann, Dirk Manteuffel
Abstract: A method for measuring deembedded antenna parameters of wearable and implanted antennas for on-body communications is presented. It consists of a tapered flat phantom in order to characterize an antenna's general ability to excite surface waves traveling along the boundary between body tissue and free space, expressed by an angular on-body antenna gain. The design offers a test zone large enough for most typical wireless body area network devices up to smartphone size while minimizing the required amount of tissue-simulating material. The designed antenna test range is validated in the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band. To showcase the applicability to a realistic application, different designs of antennas integrated into an implanted pacemaker are characterized by their on-body gain patterns. A comparison of their performance in in situ path-loss measurements reveals a clear relation to the on-body gain patterns and indicates that this parameter is a suitable measure for enabling educated antenna design for on-body applications.
Organisation(s): Institute of Microwave and Wireless Systems
Type: Article
Journal: IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation
Volume: 70
Pages: 2593-2601
No. of pages: 9
ISSN: 0018-926X
Publication date: 15.11.2021
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1109/tap.2021.3126386 (Access: Closed)
: Details in the research portal "Research@Leibniz University"

BibTeX

@article{38be0aead93a488f9b7081a4292047a8,
title = "Characterization of Wearable and Implanted Antennas: Test Procedure and Range Design",
abstract = "A method for measuring deembedded antenna parameters of wearable and implanted antennas for on-body communications is presented. It consists of a tapered flat phantom in order to characterize an antenna's general ability to excite surface waves traveling along the boundary between body tissue and free space, expressed by an angular on-body antenna gain. The design offers a test zone large enough for most typical wireless body area network devices up to smartphone size while minimizing the required amount of tissue-simulating material. The designed antenna test range is validated in the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band. To showcase the applicability to a realistic application, different designs of antennas integrated into an implanted pacemaker are characterized by their on-body gain patterns. A comparison of their performance in in situ path-loss measurements reveals a clear relation to the on-body gain patterns and indicates that this parameter is a suitable measure for enabling educated antenna design for on-body applications.",
keywords = "Antenna measurements, implanted antennas, on-body propagation, wearable antennas, wireless body area networks (WBANs)",
author = "Lukas Berkelmann and Dirk Manteuffel",
year = "2021",
month = nov,
day = "15",
doi = "10.1109/tap.2021.3126386",
language = "English",
volume = "70",
pages = "2593--2601",
journal = "IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation",
issn = "0018-926X",
publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",
number = "4",
}