Wearable Textile Multiband Antenna for WBAN Applications

A wearable textile multiband antenna with full ground plane for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications is presented in this article. The bandwidth enhancement techniques of slots and multiresonant radiators with capacitive coupling are used to achieve multiband operation including an UWB standard. Antenna optimization is performed using characteristics mode analysis (CMA) to improve the bandwidth of high-Q resonances by introducing a new independent resonance while preserving other spectral features. The proposed antenna is operable in the UWB high band specified by IEEE 802.15.6 and WLAN bands at 2.45 and 5 GHz. The antenna offers a desired directional radiation pattern with an overall antenna size of 0.55 lambda(L) x 0.67 lambda(L) x 0.03 lambda(L) at the lowest operating wavelength. The antenna can offer an averaged maximum gain of 7.2 dBi throughout the operating range and preserve its radiation performance under on-body environment and bending conditions. To our knowledge, the proposed antenna is the first wearable textile antenna with full ground plane operable in the UWB high band and the WLAN bands of 2.45 and 5 GHz.